Wide Awake
by Tori Stone
Summary: "Don't you dare close your eyes." She muttered, yanking the door closed. He threw his head back, choking down the urge to scream, as the door began to rattle violently under her hand. "If you want to stay alive, you'll keep those baby blues wide open. Got it?" And despite the fact that he had never been more terrified than in that moment, he nodded. "Good."
1. Prologue

**Sudden idea that struck me earlier today, while I was cleaning my room. I'm just gonna warn you guys now, this will probably end up being very dark. Rating will more than likely end up bumped up to M. Be aware.**

**I don't really want to give anything away, because I'm pretty excited about this one. I have a feeling it's gonna turn out to be pretty decent.**

**I don't own Danny Phantom.**

**Eeeeeenjoy.**

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**Wide Awake**

**Prologue**

**November 22, 2012**

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He used to watch the sun set almost every day. When his homework could wait, and his job as a hero did not call to him, he would carve out the time necessary to watch the sun slowly dip below the horizon. His house was set up perfectly for it; facing the west, with the only third-story balcony in the entire city. He would just sit there and watch, closing his eyes as the dying rays warmed his face for just a moment.

Sometimes his mother or sister would join him. _They_ would always want to chat._ They_ could never appreciate the serenity that came with watching the sun slowly disappear. He would often grow annoyed with them, huffing and snorting and rolling his eyes in his impatience with their chattiness. His father never even bothered; he was never the type to sit around and watch the world turn.

His favorite, though, was when _she_ came to sit with him. _She_ would do exactly what he wanted her to: just watch. She sat beside him in complete silence, soaking up every ounce of beauty the sun had to give. She only spoke when it was completely gone, and it was always something incredibly profound. She had a funny way of making him think very closely about everything he did. She was the only one he knew that appreciated the setting sun as much as he did.

Now, he refuses to watch. When the sun starts to sink, he hides. He doesn't want to see the light disappear, not after he's lost so much already. Before, the sun setting was nothing more than a natural occurence, the line between day and night. But now?

It was the slowly waning hope of a decent future. It was hope bleeding out. It was a solid, daily reminder that he was completely and utterly alone.

But, mostly, he didn't want to watch them because they reminded him of _her_. He tried, once, right after the disease took effect and everything went to hell, to watch. He closed his eyes and she was there, but not as he wanted to remember her. She was not smiling. She was not laughing. She was not cooing his name in quiet affection, gently squeezing his shoulders in encouragement, rolling her eyes in playful annoyance, flicking her hair out of her face in impatience. He closed his eyes and saw her the way she was in her last moments on earth.

Beaten.

Lifeless.

Burned beyond recognition.

He only knew it was _her_ because it was her car he found her in.

He ran, after that. She was his last hope. He believed it to be some kind of terrible nightmare, the sickly babe of the horror movie he spent too much time watching and the junk food he ate too much of. But when he saw her, nay, _them_, together in her car, he knew.

There was nothing left for him there.

And so, he left. And he has not looked back.

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She always believed herself to be a gentle soul. Perhaps she did not exude motherly qualities, but...still. She did everything in her power to save defenseless animals. So what if she was a terror to some of her particularly vicious classmates? That didn't make her a bad person. Right?

Naturally the thought of having to kill those animals was beyond preposterous to her. She couldn't help but to laugh at the ridiculousness of it. What, you expect her to lift a finger toward ending an animal's life? What has that animal ever done to you? There may be certain health benefits to eating meat, but it's not anything that can't be handled with a few vitamins. There's no need to murder.

But that was before. Before, she would never, even in her wildest dreams, kill even the most terrible of beasts.

Now, she was actually willing to take a human life. Multiple human lives, at that. Without so much as moment's hesitation.

She tried to remember when it all changed. There were so many moments when it felt like her entire world was flipped upside down, just for her to turn around two seconds later and find that it had been flipped yet again. It was flipped so many times that she was no longer sure which way was up. But one moment in particular stood out. It was a moment in which something inside of her snapped. She felt it break in two and disintegrate right there inside herself, in her very soul. In fact, now that she was thinking about it, it very well could have _been_ her soul.

She was looking for him. They both were. They managed to find_ each other_ in all the chaos. It was not so hard to imagine they could find _him_, too. It was the first thing even slightly resembling hope that she felt since her heart stopped all those hours before. They were jogging down the street, ignoring the fires burning and the buildings crumbling and the people screaming.

And then, they rounded the corner.

And they saw the empty lot where his house stood just hours before.

His house had been completely leveled. There wasn't even any debris. It was just...gone. Along with any signs of the family that once lived inside it.

Yes, that was the moment she snapped and became the machine she is today.

They took him from her.

And she made it her personal mission to take them out and to send them all to the ninth circle of hell, or to die trying.

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**Stay tuned!**

**- Tori**


	2. Chapter One

**Did all of my American readers have a good Thanksgiving? I know I did.**

**Also I hope none of you died during Black Friday. Just throwing that out there.**

**Got this chapter and the next chapter knocked out while I was at my uncle's ranch, and I managed to write a little somethin' somethin' that will be popping up on my blog in the next day or so. If you're interested, you can go check it out. Link to my blog is in my profile. Happy times.**

**Okay, I realize the prologue was confusing as all get out. It's meant to be. Hopefully you guys will be able to get a better grasp on the situation after you finish this chapter. It's all deliciously convoluted. I'm a little surprised at how complicated I'm making these first few chapters.**

**Character deaths galore in this chapter. Prepare yoselves.**

**Hm...that's all I can think of right now. Hope this sheds some light on the situation.**

**I don't own Danny Phantom. Enjoy. (:**

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**Wide Awake**

**Chapter One**

**November 24, 2012**

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It was the summer before his senior year. It was supposed to be the summer he always dreamed about; late nights that blurred into mornings, sleeping until three in the afternoon, being with his best friends, enjoying the hype before the first major turning point of his life. Danny knew, on the last day of his junior year when the final bell rang and he traipsed out of the halls, Sam's left arm hooked around his elbow and her right hooked around Tucker's, that surely this summer would be the greatest he had ever had.

And so it started. He spent literally every waking hour he could with Tucker and Sam, playing pre-released video games in Sam's home theater and eating his body weight and then some at the Nasty Burger. He watched every sunset the Earth had to offer him, and only one passed without Sam at his side. He spoke regularly with Jazz, who decided to stay in Boston over the summer to work for a prestigious lab she was interning for at Auburn University, where she was planning on going for grad school. He never did seem to stop smiling, even when he was fighting ghosts. Nothing could get him down.

The first report came mid-June, just two weeks after school ended. It was completely random and strange, a last-minute story on the six-o'clock news. Danny was heading out the door at the time, and just happened to pass by the living room, where his parents were engrossed in the television. He glanced at the screen, where the female anchor was settled behind the desk, speaking gravely into the camera. He was just about to close the front door when her words reached him.

"...to be a flesh-eating humanoid entity on the loose." He jerked back so suddenly he was almost certain he gave himself whiplash. In an instant, he was in the living room, clutching the arm of the couch as he stared in disbelief at the television screen. Raw footage of what appeared to be a man thrashing about down the middle of a suburban street played as the anchor spoke. "As you can see, it appears to be a man. Eye witnesses claim the man was incredibly agitated, vomiting what they believed was blood, and whenever someone would reach out to assist the man, he lashed out and...bit them?" The anchor's voice finally betrayed her emotions as the screen flickered back to the live shot of her sitting on the news set, staring at the camera in utter disbelief. "I...I don't -"

"Zombies!" Jack said robustly as Maddie turned the television off, cutting the end of the story off as well.

"Oh, Jack," Maddie tutted and shook her head. She stood quickly, clearing their dinner dishes off of the coffee table and heading into the kitchen. "Honestly, people get so freaked out over the littlest things. I'm sure some kind of blood vessel in his brain burst or something."

Danny chewed the inside of his cheek. He was just about to ask how real the possibility of a zombie apocalypse was when his phone rang. All of his worries vanished the moment he saw Sam's name lit up on his screen.

Within a month, seventy-five other news stories reporting zombie-like behavior in people from all over the country cropped up on that same news channel alone. Danny was sure there would have been more, had the electricity not been shut off. In those four short weeks, the disease, which scientists believed started with a new strain of mad cow disease, had effected sixty percent of the population in America alone. Amity Park was one of the last few cities to remain untouched by the disease; while most used the borrowed time to stock up and prepare for the coming onslaught, a few seemed deluded into believing that they were protected by the ghosts that haunted the place.

Of course, they were proven dead wrong faster than anyone dreamed imaginable. After two and a half weeks of merely watching, it became apparent that the disease was spreading faster than the plague. Danny quickly established an escape plan for himself, Sam, Tucker, and their families. He would take them into the mountains. The zombies did not seem to like the mountains; the terrain was too difficult for them to cross. He would take them far into the mountains, find a cave or something, and they would stay there until the disease had been eradicated and the world was sane again. He tried not to think about Jazz. He imagined her safely stored away in the basement of the lab she worked in, waiting the disease out like he would soon be doing, too.

Of course, he should have expected his plans to completely blow up in his face. They normally did. Looking back on it, he was unsure of why he ever believed his plan would work. He never learned.

It was the night before he meant to put his plans to action. He was sleeping fitfully, unsure in his half-sleeping state of whether or not the blood-curdling screams he heard were real or dream. It was all becoming too much for him to handle, his dreams so incredibly vivid, when suddenly he was being roughly shaken awake. His vision was blurred and he groaned as his senses slowly sharpened.

"Danny." His mother's voice was panicked. He snapped to attention at the sound, his skin suddenly crawling. "You have to go. Now."

"Mom, what -"

"Don't!" She shrieked. She was yanking him up by his shirt, glancing around the room in a complete frenzy. He noticed a thin sheen of sweat across her brow in the dim glow of his analogue clock, which currently read four o'clock in the morning. "You need to get out of here right now!"

"Tell me what's going on!" Danny seized his mother's elbows and held her still. She was forced to look at him, and he was shocked to see tears streaming down her face. "M-mom?"

"Sweetheart," Her voice was so soft. Danny felt his stomach churning. "Your...your father..."

"No." Danny shook his head, the realization of what was happening dawning on him. "Please."

"I'm so sorry, baby," She whispered, cupping his face in her hands. "He's...in our bedroom, but...I don't know...if..."

"Don't." He heard his voice waver. "I don't want to know."

"You need to leave." Maddie repeated, stroking his cheekbone with the pad of her thumb.

"I'm not leaving you here with him!" Danny shouted. She winced. "What did you think, I was just gonna up and leave while you stayed here and hung out with a...a..." She was holding her left forearm out. His eyes were drawn to a tattered hole in the fabric of her jumpsuit, beneath which sat several gaping, bleeding holes in her flesh, about the size and shape of his father's teeth.

"He bit me." She whispered. Danny felt his knees buckle. He hit the ground with a solid _thump_, and he didn't look up when his mother sank to the ground before him. "Danny, listen to me, okay?" Her hands were on his shoulders, his neck, in his hair. She pulled his head forward and rested her forehead against his. "Be brave, Danny. Be _strong_. Your father and I love you so, so much. We will _always_ love you."

Tears were flowing freely down his face. He felt as if he had risen out of his body, and was floating up by the ceiling, watching the scene below unfold with a distinct air of detachment.

"I don't understand...when did dad...?" He choked.

"I don't know, baby, I don't know," His mother's voice was soothing. Danny closed his eyes, doing everything he could to memorize the way her voice sounded. Distantly, on the other end of the house, he heard a terrible pounding sound, as if someone was beating their fists against a wooden door. "I don't know how much time I have left. I need to end this."

Danny jerked away from her in horror. "What do you mean, end this?" He croaked.

Her face suddenly became a mask of determination. "I will not become a monster." She growled. "Nor will I allow my husband to become one. I will do what is necessary to ensure this."

He was stunned. "You have to go now." Maddie said, pulling him to his feet. She turned and seized his backpack, dumping the contents out on his bed and hurrying around to his chest of drawers. "I wish we had more time, my love, but I can't risk waiting. Not when the turn around time varies so drastically," She explained as she dumped armfuls of clothes into the backpack. As she struggled to get the zipper up, Danny seized his cell phone from his beside table and shoved it into the pocket of the basketball shorts he had fallen asleep in. He looked up to find her smoothing the creases down and handing the bag over to him. He took it and slung it across one shoulder, before lurching forward and enveloping her in a bone-crushing hug. She returned the hug with as much force as she could muster, letting him linger. Tears stung his eyes as they fell down his face. He quickly wiped them away as his mother released him, sniffling violently as she wiped away her own tears.

"Go." She shooed him toward the bedroom door. Danny stayed frozen on the spot.

"Mom?"

"What is it?"

"I need to tell you something."

"Anything."

"I...I'm Danny Phantom."

She was silent. He closed his eyes and made the change, keeping them closed after the rings had vanished. He opened them experimentally, to find her gazing at him in a mixture of incredible sadness and extreme shock. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner." He said, glancing down at his boots. "I just...I knew you guys hated him...and I was afraid that if you found out that we're the same person...you would hate me, too."

"There is nothing you could ever do that would make me or your father hate you." She said, her voice shaking in conviction. "I am so proud to call you my son. We both are. Maybe you can find a way to end this madness." She gave him a soft half-smile.

"I love you, mom." Danny whispered.

"I love you, too." She bit her lip and choked out a small sob, before pointing to his bedroom window. "Go."

He turned and flew directly out of his bedroom window. He tried to focus on the complete chaos on the streets below him, but he found that his vision was blurred with tears. He shifted into invisibility and threw himself down on the roof of a building, dropping his backpack at his side and burying his face in his hands. He sobbed until his throat felt raw, flinching and quaking when he heard the deafening sounds of his house exploding. When he finally looked up, his eyes were drawn to the empty space in the sky where the FentonWorks sign once stood proud.

Danny stood, took several shuddering breaths, and allowed his mind to switch over to hero mode. He immediately thought of Tucker and Sam. He glanced over the side of the building he chose to break down on. The streets were going to be impossible. As he watched, three cars slammed into various fire hydrants, buildings, and telephone poles. Non-infected people were sprinting down the sidewalks, screaming as zombies tore after them. Danny swallowed as he watched the zombies move; they were unlike anything he had ever seen before. They were far faster than he originally imagined, and far more vicious. He saw no sign of Tucker or Sam, so he hoped they were still at their respective houses.

Tucker's house was closest, so Danny set off in that direction. He kept himself invisible, soaring high over the buildings until Tucker's house came into view. He dropped in altitude, investigating the scene as he approached. The lights were off, which he supposed was not a good sign. In fact, considering how frantic the people on the street were, Tucker's house was suspiciously comatose.

His first mistake was coming any closer. He spotted a broken window on the third floor; it looked as if someone had thrown a chair through in their haste to escape. He dropped down a bit closer and spotted a motionless body on the sidewalk in front of the house.

Mr. Foley had jumped. He either leapt out or was pushed out of the window to his death. If Danny's heart beat while he was a ghost, he was certain it would have stopped at the sight. He dropped lower, his eyes on the back of his best friend's father, and before he realized it, he was level with the broken window. On the very edge of his vision, he saw movement, and that was when he made his second mistake. He looked up.

Mrs. Foley had been bitten just hours previously, but she looked as if she had been sick with the disease for months. Boils and sores were spattered across her face and neck, and the skin beneath it was sickly and pale. Her eyes, once a warm and welcoming hazel, were now a cold, flat grey. He was certain that one eye did not even have a pupil for how light they were. Danny reared back as she lurched toward the window. She seized the window frame, leaned out, and screamed. Her voice was deep, broken, and alien to him. He realized his mouth was hanging open in shock, but he could not bring himself to close it.

He was completely overwhelmed by this new blow. Suddenly he felt an overpowering need to find Tucker and protect him, so without thinking about it, Danny rocketed forward. He slid into intangibility and drifted right past Mrs. Foley without even alerting her to his presence.

Tucker's room was empty. The sheets were turned up, as if someone had recently scrambled out of them, and Danny noted Tucker's beret was missing from its' usual resting place on a hook by the door. Tucker seemed to have used his backpack to collect his belongings in, too, because Danny spotted a pile of discarded school supplies beneath Tucker's computer desk. He searched the rest of the house, just in case, but he realized Tucker had probably taken off in a similar fashion to Danny. He wondered if Tucker's father got the chance to say goodbye.

Danny drifted out of the house, unable to tear his eyes away from Mrs. Foley, who was now tearing back and forth from one side of the room she was apparently trapped in to the other. He tried not to think of his father or what he looked like before...

Danny snapped his eyes shut, willing the tears to disappear. He would have time to grieve later, when he was reunited with Tucker and Sam.

His eyes snapped open and he was off like a rocket again, the only thought he was able to form being Sam. His non-existant pulse quickened and adrenaline boiled in his veins as he prayed that she was okay. Losing her was impossible to imagine. He could not bear the thought of it.

He nearly fell out of the air when the mansion came into view. Her home was in the northern half of the city, in the area notorious for families with impossible amounts of money. Each house was bigger and grander than the last, and Sam's was one of the biggest and grandest. Naturally, it was perched on top of a decent-sized hill, making it clearly visible to everyone within at least a half-mile radius. So when Danny rounded the corner, he was given a clear view of Manson Manor.

Which was completely engulfed in flames.

"_Sam!_" He bellowed, speaking for the first time since he left his house. He sped forward desperately, sliding effortlessly into intangibility and diving into the flames. She had to be okay. She promised.

_"Do you ever think about dying?" She asked, closing her eyes lazily as the sun dipped below the horizon. Danny shot her a sideways glance, momentarily admiring the way the sun brought out the subtle violet highlights in her raven hair._

_"Nah," He lied, turning his attention back to the pinkish hues left in the sky, bleeding into a deep red on the underbellies of a few stray clouds. "Why, d'you?"_

_"Well, yeah. Sometimes." She sighed, leaning back on her hands and staring straight up at the sky. "Like, when, or how. Who I'll be with. What I'll be wearing. That sort of thing."_

_"What you'll be wearing?" Danny asked incredulously. Her eyes were closed, he noticed, as she smirked. "You _never_ think about clothes."_

_She opened one eye, making a dramatic flourish out of her eye roll, which earned a chuckle from him. "You're right. I don't. But sometimes, when I have to go buy a new shirt or something, I'll wonder...will I be wearing this when I die?"_

_"I've never thought about it like that." Danny said curiously. "It's kind of morbid to think about. Don't you think?"_

_"Well...not when human lives are so delicate. They can end just like that." She snapped her fingers, her head still thrown back and eyes closed. "They can end at any time, really. In the blink of an eye."_

_"Why're we talking about this?" He asked, growing more and more uncomfortable with the apparent ease with which Sam spoke of her own death._

_"Just been thinking about it a lot lately." She shrugged, still not looking at him._

_"You can't die." He muttered._

_She turned to look at him that time, her brows knit in confusion. "What?"_

_"I...I don't...want you to...y'know...die." He said the last word so softly it was almost as if he was afraid to say it too loud. "It would...seriously suck." Her eyes softened and the faintest blush crept across her cheeks._

_"I wouldn't even dream of dying without saying goodbye first. That's a promise." She assured him. And he believed her._

"Sam!" He shouted over the roar of the flames. He strained to hear, but the only sounds he picked up were shattering glass and crumbling framework. He shot into her room, which was completely full of smoke, so much so that it was difficult to see, but empty of any human beings. He flitted through all the rooms, cursing her father for designing the house with so many rooms and hiding places. Once he was satisfied that she was not on the fourth floor, he dropped down to the third.

He made it all the way down to the first floor without seeing any signs of anyone before he finally found something. Her kitchen seemed to be at the very heart of the fire; flames twice as tall as him leapt up and licked the ceiling, leaving jet-black scorch marks over the expensive paint. He peered desperately through the flames and spotted it.

One of the bar stools had been completely flipped over, as if someone had been sitting there and jumped up in a hurry. A plate with a half-eaten piece of toast sat in on the counter where he assumed the bar stool originally stood. He lurched forward, his hands fluttering over the scene, and as he got closer to the toast, he spotted the faintest trace of her plum lip gloss around the crescent-shaped bite mark.

It seemed like Sam had gotten up in the middle of the night for a midnight snack when news of the epidemic reached her. He flew out of the mansion, keeping his eyes trained on the windows, watching closely for any signs of life. There were none. He floated over the driveway and glanced down, and suddenly he noticed that Sam's car was missing.

Relief washed through him, making him go weak at the knees. He was certain that had he been standing he would have collapsed. As it was, he simply darted down the driveway, ignoring the fact that her front gate was still standing wide open, determined to find her. Amity Park was not that big, it did not seem like such a stretch to try and find her.

He searched for ten minutes, before he spotted the top of her Grand Cherokee as it shot down a side street. He kept up with it, slowly lowering himself closer, flinching as the car narrowly avoided slamming into people still running and screaming like mad. Danny had almost reached the conclusion that Sam was the most skilled driver he had ever seen when it happened.

It was like watching her car crash in slow motion. He noticed she was heading off to the left, toward a gas station, and he was almost happy that she was pulling over to fill up. He wondered if she was planning on leaving Amity Park. It did not cross his mind that it was odd that she was not slowing down until she slammed into the gas pump.

The force of the explosion actually blew him backwards, sending him flipping three times through the air before he was able to catch himself. He stared in utter disbelief as the entire gas station was engulfed in flames. And then, for the second time that evening, he lurched forward toward the inferno.

He did not bother screaming her name that time. He slid into intangibility and landed beside her car, bringing himself up to the windows to peer inside. The flames had burst through the floors, making it difficult to make out what was inside. He saw her, though, or who he assumed was her, in the driver's seat. She was still clutching the steering wheel. He was in shock. It was not until he noticed another human-shaped mass wearing a charred red hat in the passenger's seat that he snapped.

He stumbled backwards and fell, straight through the concrete and into the ground, allowing himself to sink ten feet into the earth. All noises from the outside world were immediately cut off, leaving him completely and utterly alone. His broken, heaving sobs were much louder than before. In less than three hours, he had lost everything he had ever held close to his heart. His father. His mother. His home. And now, Sam and Tucker. He knew it was them in her car. The most painful part about it was that they were alive just seconds before. He watched them die. And he could do nothing to save them.

Tourists used to joke that Amity Park was a literal ghost town. Had someone said that to him two months earlier, he would have rolled his eyes and walked away. _But now_, he thought as he hiked his backpack higher on his shoulder and sped toward the east,_ that couldn't be more true_.

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**Understand now?**

**Haha, sucks to suck.**

**Next chapter should be up soon. In the next few days. Keep an eye on it.**

**As always, thanks for reading.**

**- Tori**


	3. Chapter Two

**Some reviews have been asking if this is the first zombie story involving the DPverse. Honestly, I have no idea, but I would love to find out. I'll look into it.**

**When you picture these zombies, think Zombieland zombies. For now. Oki?**

**Oki.**

**I have a feeling this chapter is gonna pissssss you offffff. Woooooo.**

**I don't want to give anything away, so I'm gonna go get ready for work. Hehe.**

**I don't own Danny Phantom. Enjoy! (:**

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**Wide Awake**

**Chapter Two**

**November 24, 2012**

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Sam was never fond of summer. Sure, it meant that school was out and she was no longer required to spend seven hours a day trapped in a room with Paulina and Dash, and Tucker's birthday was in the middle of July, but other than that...

She viewed it as a necessary evil. It was three months in which mother nature sought revenge for all of her burned and baked animals by attempting to cook the humans with ridiculously high temperatures. It was all she could do to keep herself from hissing at the sun every time she left her home.

Of course, spending almost all of her time with Tucker and Danny made it a little better. They had a funny way of making her forget she was completely miserable. They, at least, appeared completely unperturbed by the skin-melting temperatures. They would laugh at her disgruntled expressions and hug her just a bit too tight, ruffling her hair until she squealed and shoved their arms away. And despite her assurances that it was incredibly annoying, she enjoyed it.

About two weeks after school ended, Danny told her something strange. They were going to dinner, just the two of them, because Tucker was being forced to stay home and have dinner with his parents for his mother's birthday. They had just sat down in their booth at the Nasty Burger, neither of them saying much as Sam assumed they were both starving, when suddenly Danny leaned over. He looked her dead in the eye and whispered "I think there might be zombies on the loose."

"What?" He leaned back, a smug grin on his face for having completely captured her attention. "I'm sorry, did you just say zombies?"

"Yeah. I saw it on the news right before you picked me up." He popped a french fry in his mouth, still grinning through his onyx hair at the incredulous look on her face. "There was a video of it and everything. It looked like the real deal."

"You're joking." Sam said accusingly, shaking her head mostly at herself for half-believing him. "Zombies don't exist."

"I bet you would have said the same thing about ghosts four years ago." Danny pointed out. She paused mid-bite, contemplating the truth behind that statement. "And look at you now. A certified, accomplished ghost hunter."

She dropped her veggie burger on her plate and grumbled something about it wasn't the same thing and how impossible he was. Danny laughed, and then their attention turned completely toward their food. After that meal, though, once she was back in her room and away from other people, she searched YouTube for the video Danny half-described. Her eyes went wide as she watched.

From that night on, it seemed as if the entire world was seized with zombie-fever. Reports of zombie-like behavior crept up from all corners of the globe, many of them much too close for comfort. It became quickly apparent that this was not just some hoax put on by bored college students, especially when video of a man hunched over a motionless woman, eating what appeared to be the muscles of her arm cropped up on YouTube. The video was taken down the following day, and then YouTube itself vanished from the confines of the internet, and it was not long after that when the internet completely went out. It all seemed to go like that; at first, just a few channels disappeared off the air, until one day she turned on the television and every single channel was nothing but white noise.

Danny said he had a plan to keep them safe. Amity, somehow, was one of the last pockets of population that remained momentarily unravished by the disease. They were using as much of the time as they could to gather their belongings and prepare for evacuation. Danny mentioned something about the mountains about thirty miles from town after it was discovered that zombies are not particularly skilled climbers. They would be leaving the following day, leaving everything behind for good, which made Sam incredibly nervous. Her father and grandmother had been out of the country on business for several weeks, much longer than originally planned, and Sam was forced to assume the worst. She was left alone with her mother.

The night before Danny was supposed to take them all to safety, Sam could not sleep. She lay in her bed, tossing and turning, trying to figure out if the faintest high-pitched keening sounds she was hearing was part of some half-formed zombie apocalypse nightmare or her overactive imagination. Finally, around three forty-five in the morning, she gave up and rolled out of bed. She shuffled forward, wearing nothing more than shorts and a tank top, and descended the stairs. She made it all the way down to her kitchen, yawning and stretching, thinking she would make herself something to eat. Her appetite evaded her that night at dinner with Danny and Tucker, but now she was rather hungry. She pulled out the loaf of bread her mother kept in the cabinet and set out to make herself toast.

As she waited for the toaster to finish, she glanced around her kitchen. It was all exactly as it had always been, all shining appliances and gleaming countertops. She smiled sadly, trying to assure herself that it would all still be this way after this whole zombie mess was sorted out. It was not that she felt as if she needed all of the frivolity; in fact, she felt quite the opposite about it all. It was merely the fact that this place had been her home since she was three years old. Huge and unnecessary and probably a gigantic waste of money, but, still. Home.

Her purse was exactly where she had dumped it just hours before, but it had fallen over and some of the contents had spilled out. She sighed and swept it all up, sitting the purse in its' upright position. Her plum colored lip gloss was settled on top, and as Sam stared at it, she grinned at the multitude of memories of Danny pausing and staring when she would apply that lip gloss in front of him. Tucker told her, once, that it was probably Danny's favorite thing about her. He told her that the boy dreamed about the way she smeared that purple-tinted gloss across her mouth. He told her that Danny admitted once he wanted to know what it tasted like. She blushed furiously as she applied just a little bit on her lips. It was beyond frivolous and stupid, but it somehow made her feel closer to him. Just for a moment.

She pocketed the gloss as the toaster sent her finished snack up. She pulled a small plate down and carefully picked the smoking bread up out of the toaster, dropping it quickly on the plate to alleviate the burning sensations in her fingertips. She settled in the corner bar stool pulled up to the island in the middle of her kitchen, staring off into space as she ate.

The sounds of someone moving upstairs did not reach her until they were actually on the stairs. It was a loud crash, like a body falling down the stairs, followed quickly by the sounds of someone standing and shuffling forward. Sam paused, her lips and teeth against the bread, as she listened. It was just her mother and her in the house. But the footsteps she heard were nothing like her mother's light and dainty steps; they were heavy, shuffling, and accompanied by the strangest grunting sounds. Sam ripped the piece of bread off and chewed quickly, dropping the bread on her plate and wiping the crumbs off of her hands on her shirt. She swallowed and sucked in a deep breath. "Mom?" She called hesitantly.

The shuffling and grunting stopped. Sam sat very still, both hands planted on the counter in preparation to push off and run if necessary. The shuffling was back, much faster than it had been before, almost as if whoever it was approaching was running. Adrenaline and fear wound their way through her belly and made her quickly regret ever trying to eat.

Her mother roared from the doorway of the kitchen as she came barreling into view. Sam had just enough time to absorb the matted tangles her usually immaculate red hair was reduced to, framing her pale, boil-covered face and sticking to her wide, gaping mouth before she was lurching forward and swinging violently at Sam. Sam shoved against the counter, sending her bar stool toppling backwards as she ran. Her mother clambered over the fallen chair, gnashing and baring her teeth and screaming in her fury. Sam darted around the opposite side of the island, unable to tear her eyes away from what was once her mother. Her breaths were coming in sharp gasps as she tried to think quickly.

So her mother had been bitten. Sam wondered when it happened, or if she was even aware of it happening. She wondered if her mother had gone to bed that night knowing what she would become within just a few hours. She wondered if her mother knew, even now, what she was doing.

She was shaken out of those thoughts when her mother tipped her head back and howled, low and gutteral, at the ceiling. She was unable to hold her own whimpers back when her mother fixed two clouded, pale, deadened eyes on her face.

_That's not my mother anymore_, Sam thought as her mother slowly rounded the island, snarling and growling as Sam mirrored her movements to the opposite end of the island. _That's just a monster. It's a monster that wants to kill me. What are you gonna do, Manson? You gonna let a monster kill you in your own home?_

_Not in this life_, she thought with a growl as she lurched forward. Her mother snarled and attempted to round the other side of the island, intending on catching Sam around her waist, but Sam was prepared. She seized one of the handles of the rarely used butcher knives, and as her mother raced forward, arms opened wide to trap her, Sam stabbed her.

The blade sank up to its' hilt in her mother's breast, drawing a terrible, ear-shattering scream from the now-convulsing woman. Sam watched in horror as her mother reared back, stumbling backwards, trying to find something to hold on to. She stumbled all the way back to the trash chute, where the backs of her knees hit and she collapsed. She flipped over backwards and fell, head-first, down the chute. Sam stared at the place where she had stood just seconds before, trying to snap out of her shock. She knew the chute dropped directly over a furnace. She knew what was about to happen. But she could not bring herself to move.

A fireball bigger than her entire body rocketed out of the trash chute, shooting directly up into the ceiling and catching the sheet rock and wooden beams there, spiraling up in massive flames. Finally, Sam felt her legs moving as she dodged crumbling debris. She was running up the stairs, coughing as thick black smoke unfurled in the air around her. She needed to get out before her entire house went up in flames, which would be fairly quickly for how dry the area had been over the summer. She lurched forward, into her room, which had somehow already begun to fill with smoke. She heaved and coughed through the smoke, ignoring the tears streaming down her face, as she tried to gather anything and everything she could reach to shove in the empty bag she had at the foot of her bed. She managed to yank her boots on and to grab a few shirts and a pair of black pants before the smoke became too thick for her to breathe.

She yanked the bag up, slung it across her back, and raced back to her door. She flung it open and stumbled into the hallway, coughing violently as she attempted to see. The staircase seemed to be clear, so she ran toward it. She kept her left hand firmly gripping the railing as her right covered her nose and mouth, trying to help her breathe. She made it down to the third floor, half-way to the second, before discovering that the flames were quickly climbing up the stairs. She was forced back up, to the third floor, where she ran down to the far end of the landing and shouldered her way into a spare room.

The smoke was thick here, but not as thick as in her room. Sam crossed the room quickly, shoving the window open and sticking her head out. She gasped as fresh air assaulted her senses, accompanied by the sounds of her town falling apart. "Help!" She screamed, unsure of who she was expecting to help her. She screamed the first name that popped into her head: "Danny!"

"Sam!" A familiar voice called from above her. She looked up, hardly believing what she heard. Valerie lowered herself to Sam's level. She was in her ghost-hunting suit, on her hoverboard, with the visor of her helmet pushed up. "Are you alone?"

"Yeah!" Sam shouted desperately, glancing back at the strengthening glow of the fire beneath the door. Even more smoke was pouring in through the cracks. "Please help me!"

Valerie seized Sam's arms, pulling her out to stand on her hoverboard. "Be careful, don't fall!" She said loudly, her hands gripping Sam so hard she was certain she was bruising. "Are you sure there's no one else in there?"

"My mom," Sam's voice shook as Valerie helped her stand. "But don't bother, she's already dead."

"How do you know?" Valerie asked, her voice rising in panic.

"I killed her."

They flew in silence, the sounds of the city dying scarcely reaching them as Sam's story threatened to crush them. Valerie was silent from the moment Sam began describing what had happened in her kitchen, offering nothing more than a gentle squeeze around her shoulders when Sam finally submitted to crushing grief. It was some time later that Sam was finally able to look up again, and when she did, she realized they were on the complete opposite side of town. "Where are we going?"

"There's an old bunker out here. Used to play in it when I was a kid," She did not look around at Sam. "A lot of people are gathering there. It's the safest place we've got right now."

There did not seem to be any zombies around when Valerie touched down outside the bunker. Sam glanced around in nervous paranoia, expecting them to all come rushing at them at any moment. They never did.

Valerie, once inside the bunker, led Sam through a maze of twisting hallways and descended several narrow staircases. Sam was just about to give up and ask how much longer when they were deposited at the end of a very long hallway. At the other end was a single door. Valerie glanced back, a small reassuring smile on her face, and walked forward. Sam trailed uncertainly behind.

Inside, Sam could see almost a hundred people sitting on benches or huddled on the floor. Some were obviously families, clutching at each other in silent desperation. Others were orphans like her, sitting alone, staring into nothingness, faint but pronounced tear tracks glittering on their faces. Sam's heart ached at the sight of them. "Dad?" Valerie's voice broke Sam's reverie. "I found another live one."

Mr. Gray stood, off in a far corner, surrounded by people. "Good. Get her a blanket, some water. Sam," His voice was soft and gentle. She suddenly felt like crying again. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"S-Sam?" A familiar voice asked hesitantly from behind Mr. Gray. Mr. Gray stepped to the right, revealing none other than Tucker. Their eyes met and in an instant Tucker was scrambling to his feet and rushing toward her. He practically tackled her for how hard he hugged her, and she hugged him right back. She buried her face in the dip of his shoulder and sobbed. She could feel him shaking with his own tears as his hands roamed her back, fisting her hair and holding her close. They stayed like that for several moments, ignoring the fact that people were watching them. Finally, Tucker pulled away, but he kept his arms around her, which she was fine with. His face was flushed and pale beneath his glasses. One of the lenses was cracked. But other than that, he seemed to be unharmed. "I was so afraid that -"

"I know, me too," She said. She yanked him back down into a second hug, releasing a watery chuckle when he lifted her feet off the ground for a moment.

"Are your...did you...were you the only one that made it out?" He asked when he pulled away. She grimaced. "I mean I'm taking it from the soot all over your entire body and the fact that you smell like smoke that you were in a fire?"

"My house caught fire." Sam muttered. "Because a zombie fell into the trash chute and blew the furnace up."

"A zombie got into your house?" Tucker asked, his voice flaring in panic. His arms tightened around her waist as a fit of overprotectiveness washed over him.

"She was already in the house when she became a zombie." Sam said in a small voice.

Tucker's eyes widened in understanding. He crushed Sam to his chest again, silently remembering the terror he woke up to when it was discovered that his mother had succumbed to the disease sometime in the middle of the night. He blocked the memories of Valerie pulling him to safety on her hoverboard, before turning and trying to help his father out as well. But his mother was too fast for them. She managed to latch on to his ankle just as Valerie was pulling him out of the window, and after a brief battle of tug-of-war, his hands slipped out of Valerie's and he fell. He could not think about it now.

"I'm so glad you're okay." He whispered to her. She whimpered and pulled herself closer to him. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the temporary moment of relief. After he realized that his parents were no longer able to be saved, finding Sam was the first thing that he felt needed to be done. Finding Danny was the second, but there would be time for that later. After all, Danny was a half-ghost. All he had to do was slip into intangibility and he would be fine. He and Sam were the two that were at the most risk, and since he was safe, he desperately wanted her to be, too.

"We've gotta find Danny." Sam mumbled into his shoulder. He leaned away and she was looking up at him through eyes full of fear and determination. "He'll be freaking out right now, if he's even awake."

"I can't imagine him sleeping through that," Tucker glanced up at the ceiling. "But you're right. We should go look for him." He turned to Valerie. "Val?"

She stepped forward from the edges of the group, where she had been watching in silence. "What's up?"

"Think you can drop us off at FentonWorks?"

"That's in the heart of the city." She said, her voice low. "I'm sorry, guys, but -"

"Either you drop us off or we find our own way." Sam said sharply. Valerie sighed.

"I'll take you, but we're gonna go a roundabout way. I don't want anyone figuring out where this place is." Her voice was low, as if she knew exactly who she was keeping the location a secret from. Tucker and Sam exchanged a look, but did not say anything.

* * *

"We'll be going back to Sam's neighborhood," Valerie shouted over the wind. Sam was staring down at the streets, where pandemonium reigned free. Several other large fires had broken out across the city, and a few buildings had already crumbled under the pressure. "Hold on."

Sam tightened her grip around Valerie's waist, feeling Tucker do the same around her own waist as the hoverboard sped up. Her house was clearly visible from that altitude, and she heard Tucker gasp when he noticed it. "How did that happen?"

"She fell down the trash chute." Sam said, refusing to look at the house longer than a moment. "That's why I always told you guys to stay away from the chute."

"It's gonna burn the whole city down." Tucker said loudly.

"Let's hope so." Valerie said darkly.

She curved around about a block before Manson Manor, dropping down to just below the tops of the buildings and coasting toward FentonWorks. "You think he's still gonna be in there?" She asked as they drew closer.

"Not sure. He could be out running around." Sam glanced back at Tucker. "Maybe Tuck and I should go on foot, to see if we can find him down on the streets?"

"Normally, I would say _hell_ no. But I get the feeling that neither of you would even hesitate to kill a zombie if it was attacking Fenton." She dropped down into a darkened alley, not quite touching the ground, but low enough for Sam and Tucker to jump down. "'Specially you, Manson."

Normally, she would have blushed and punched the living daylights out of Valerie. But instead she just nodded grimly. "I'm gonna fly up, keep an eye on things. You guys go get him."

Valerie shoved two ecto rays into their hands. "They don't do much, other than royally piss them off, but we're still scouting for guns and ammo and those will distract them long enough for you guys to get away. Please, for the love of God, be careful." And with that, she was off, fifty feet in the air above them. Sam and Tucker stared at the bottom of her hoverboard for a moment before turning and jogging out into the streets.

They paused at the entrance of the alley, looking this way and that as zombies chased people at break-neck speeds. Cars shot by so fast they were blurs. Sam swallowed and stepped out.

"Sam!" Tucker's hand was suddenly vice-like around her arm as he yanked her backwards. A tan Jeep Grand Cherokee went flying past. A very familiar tan Jeep Grand Cherokee.

"That's my car!" She shouted, watching as it careened around the corner and out of sight. "Some asshole must have hotwired it and stolen it!"

"We don't have time, let's just go!" His hand found hers and he dragged her down the sidewalk toward FentonWorks. She swallowed her fury at whoever stole the car, wishing them a painful death, as they neared the Fenton's street. They turned the corner, heading down the same street her car turned on to but in the opposite direction, and Sam chanced a glance over her shoulder. She could just see the tail lights of her car through the bodies sprinting back and forth through the street, apparently heading toward a gas station. She growled and turned back to face the front.

"_What?_" Tucker choked. He skidded to a stop so suddenly that Sam crashed directly into his back. She stumbled, grabbed his shoulders, and straightened herself up. She peered around his shoulder.

There was an empty lot between two achingly familiar buildings. Sam stared at it uncomprehendingly. Wasn't there a house there?

"It's gone!" Tucker gasped. "FentonWorks...it's...gone!"

"No," Sam shook her head. She stepped around Tucker, staring at the empty lot. "There's no way it's gone. We're on the wrong street, it's -" Tucker silenced her and pointed to the scorch marks visible on the wall of the building beside the empty lot. There were even places where the wall was crumbling.

"Their house blew up." He said, his voice hollow. "It was here, it blew up, and now it's gone."

Sam whirled around to face him, her mouth open in a snarl, but before she could insult his intelligence a deafening, ground-shaking explosion down the street cut her off. She stepped around Tucker and gasped. The gas station her car had been heading to had exploded, and it was now alive with fire.

"That was my car!" She screamed, staring at the dark, Jeep-shaped mass engulfed in flames. "That was my fucking car!"

"Sam!" Tucker seized her shoulders and shook her. "Forget about the damn car!"

"Holy shit!" She gasped. She whirled back around, her eyes dancing over the place where FentonWorks once stood. It was impossible. She had eaten dinner there, with Tucker and Danny, just hours before. There was no way it was gone. No way _he_ was gone. "_Danny_!" She screeched. She took off down the street, ignoring Tucker's desperate calls and dodging flailing limbs as she ran. "_Danny_!"

"Look out!" Tucker bellowed. Sam turned to her right and saw the a man with an enormous belly, riddled with disease, charging directly at her with a deafening roar. She skidded to a halt and lunged at him, swinging the ecto ray still clutched in her hand down on top of his head as hard as she could. She heard bone crack and the zombie dropped heavily, body motionless. She leapt over him and continued running.

"Sam!" Valerie was suddenly there, cutting her path off. The ghost huntress caught Sam around the middle and hoisted her up into the air, holding her down as she struggled to get free. "Let it go!"

"No! Danny!" She could feel the veins bulging in her neck as she fought with Valerie.

"He's gone!" Valerie screamed in her ear. Sam froze, her body rigid. "He's gone, and he's never coming back, okay? He's gone. Let it go."

"B-but -"

"Let. It. Go."

Sam's entire body began to quake as a hurricane erupted inside her soul. It felt as if everything had been smashed to pieces, leaving her floundering in a mountain of salt and broken glass. Everything hurt. Even the deep, shuddering breaths she gasped grated against her heart.

She collapsed on the hoverboard, ignoring the way the device teetered violently as it took her sudden redistribution of weight, and sobbed. She felt Valerie lowering them to the ground, and then she felt Tucker gathering her up in a hug. She clung to him as she sobbed, desperately wanting to tell him the news but finding herself incapable of speaking. Valerie explained softly over Sam's head, making her cling to Tucker even more tightly as the news washed over her again. Danny was dead. He was dead. He was never coming back again.

"We need to get out of here." Valerie said, her voice suddenly hard. Sam heard Tucker agreeing, his voice low and rumbling in his chest, and before she knew it she was being lifted. She peered blindly up at Tucker, who was climbing on to the hoverboard, and as he lowered her legs down so that her feet were touching the board she buried her face in his chest. She did not want to see the outside world. She wanted to forget, to crawl inside herself and never come back out again. After all, there was no pain there. In her mind, Danny was still very much alive. In her mind there were no zombies, her mother was not dead, and her father and grandmother were unharmed. Everyone was there, safe, and it was perfect.

Why would she ever want anything to be different?

* * *

**Typical DxS hit/miss.**

**LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.**

**- Tori**


	4. Chapter Three

**Nooooooot the first zombie fic in the DPverse. Damn. I didn't even get a chance to check before people were leaving reviews. Lol. Guys, it didn't offend me, I had a feeling it had been done before. I was gonna be really, _really _surprised if this was the first zombie fic in this fandom. Don't worry about offending me with that stuff. I take offense to people who insult me when they review. If you like my writing, awesome. If you don't like it, that's fine. It's your opinion, and I'm not gonna get all pissy because you don't like my writing. But if you start insulting me as a human being?**

**Bro, that's when I start having a problem.**

**But, yeah, don't worry about offending me with your opinions of my writing or pointing out mistakes I've made. I really don't take offense. The majority of the reason that I even have a profile on this site is so that I can get a feel of what works and what doesn't work as far as reading goes. I need you guys to be honest, because if I ever want to publish anything of my own (which I do, very much so) I'm gonna need a good idea of what people want to read.**

**Okay. Rant over.**

**Let me know if you think I'm going too fast or too slow with this. I think people are gonna get confused by something I stuck in later on, and I have a feeling y'all are gonna think that I'm starting to wind the story down because of this thing, but I promise you, it's far from over. I still have a big plan for these characters.**

**Um, let's see. No more character deaths for a while, so y'all can rest easy on that.**

**You're either going to be very happy for very pissed at where I leave this chapter. I look forward to the hate mail I will be receiving over the next few days. :D**

**I don't own Danny Phantom.**

**Enjoy (:**

* * *

**Wide Awake**

**Chapter Three**

**November 27, 2012**

* * *

Danny stole a picture of her, if you could call it stealing. He snuck back, in the dead of night, just a few weeks after it happened, because he could not bring himself to leave without something to remember her by. He knew that without a photograph, he would start to forget what she looked like. And that terrified him, because his memories were the only thing he had left of her.

There was only one picture that was left untouched by the fire that destroyed her home the night of The Event, as he had come to refer to it in his mind. She would have hated the fact that he took it, that it was the only solid evidence he had that proved she ever existed, because in the picture she was wearing his clothes. His shirt. His hat. She was looking up at the camera with wide, innocent eyes, her lips glistening slightly with that hypnotic purple lip gloss he used to lust after, obviously oblivious to the effect she had on him. She swore she hated that picture when she was alive, even though she framed it and kept it in the drawer she kept all the things he had left at her house over the years in.

It was his favorite picture of her, partly because she was wearing his clothes, and partly because he had been the one that took it.

He started the grieving process all over again when he found it. The picture was fairly recent, taken just a few months before the start of the epidemic. He pulled it out of the shattered frame it once sat in, folded it, and carefully tucked it into his wallet, which miraculously survived the dump the night his mother emptied his backpack and his entire world fell apart.

After that, he flew east, hoping he would find Jazz. He made it all the way to Boston, where the zombie population was unbelievably thick. He was invisible the entire time he floated over the city, staring in disgust and disbelief at the scenery. He made it to the Auburn University campus, which was nearly destroyed in what looked like was the largest fire Boston had ever seen. The vast majority of the campus was scorched. So he merely turned and floated away without even trying to search the rubble, numbly attempting to come to terms with the fact that he was now officially completely alone.

For a year, he drifted. Besides the first day, when he scavenged abandoned outlet stores for tennis shoes to wear while he was Fenton, his feet rarely touched solid ground. When they did, it was only long enough for him to find something to eat. And then he was up and off again. For a while, he berated himself for flying over the mess. He told himself that his mother died believing he would be able to do something to change the disease. He was furious with himself for letting her die believing a lie. But soon he was able to fly without forming a conscious thought. He drifted, mentally and physically. The pain of everything he lost was too much to bear, so he shoved it all away. Vaguely, he wondered if he was losing his mind.

The only time he felt sane was when he pulled Sam's picture out and floated mid-air to stare at her. He memorized the contours of her face, the way the tips of her feathery raven hair tickled her jawbone, the way her collar bones were just barely visible poking up through the neck of his shirt beneath her creamy porcelain skin. He closed his eyes and pictured the way she straightened after he took that picture, eyeing him suspiciously, and muttering "_Perv_."

It was four months after The Event that he realized he could no longer remember exactly what her voice sounded like.

He saw uninfected humans occasionally. They seemed to travel in small packs. They were all incredibly wary of anyone that did not belong in their pack, which made the option of joining them next to impossible. He tried, two or three times, to join a group. He always ended up leaving. He was better off in the air, where he could make no connections. _Because when you make connections_, he reasoned, _you start to care. And when you care, they die. And when they die, you get left alone_.

His phone died fairly early on, not that it was a major loss. The cell phone towers were either destroyed or useless, so it was really more of a brick in his pocket than anything else, especially after it died. He cursed himself for not taking any pictures of Tucker or Sam or his family while he had the chance; he chose to fill the memory space with photographs of hundreds of sunsets.

Sunsets had lost all meaning for him. If anything, they hurt him, because in his mind they became a sacred tradition he shared with Sam and only Sam. He tried to watch one after The Event, and when the yellow slowly faded to orange, he told himself that she was the one lowering the sun for him. She was the one that was painting the sky such brilliant colors. She was the one bringing beauty back to the world when beauty was non-existant.

Suddenly his heart clenched, tears blurred his vision, and he had to turn away.

He flew aimlessly, unsure of what he was looking for. He rarely looked down, except to check that he was still in the United States. He was close to Mexico, once, when he spotted a sign that stated in proud, faded lettering, "_Welcome to El Paso, Texas!_" He turned to the north and started off again.

He was starting to adjust to the life of a drifter. There was no danger in the air. Screams for help did not affect him, because in his mind they were not real. No one was real anymore. The only real thing in his life was the sun, high above him, and his picture of Sam. The fact that he could no longer remember exactly how thick Tucker's glasses were, or the length of his sister's hair, or the color of his mother's jumpsuit, or the color of his father's eyes did not bother him. They were important to him, and it hurt him deeply that they were gone, but none more so than Sam.

His other friends, if you could call them that, rarely crossed his mind. He thought of Valerie the most: a grand total of three times, and two of them were only because he thought he heard someone down below calling out to someone named Valerie. He ignored it, as always, and continued flying.

He was not aware of it, but it was exactly one year and twenty-seven days after The Event that destiny intervened once again. He was flying, as usual, when something down below caught his attention and made him descend in slow, lazy circles. His head was cocked to the side, listening intently, hardly daring to believe was he was hearing.

It was music.

It was the first time he had heard real music since before The Event. He had heard people singing before, of course, but this was different. This was recorded music played over the radio or a CD. Someone had a giant speaker system hooked up, and was blasting music loud enough to be heard from at least a quarter of a mile away.

Danny paused a few feet over an abandoned water tower, his eyes zeroing in on a large storage facility that he believed was the source of the noise. He was in a small town; Clifton seemed to be in all of the names of the buildings still stamped over the busted doors. He chewed on his tongue and tried to remember if he had ever learned what state Clifton was in.

He peered down at the streets from the side of the building. They appeared to be completely empty; there was absolutely no sign of movement from anywhere. He straightened and stared at the building, frozen in indecision. He was curious, as anyone in his position would be. But at the same time, a terrible feeling was winding through his stomach, clenching unpleasantly and begging him to just turn and fly away.

Finally curiosity won out and he slowly lowered himself down to the streets and flashed over to Fenton for the first time since just after The Event. He walked cautiously, prepared to flit into intangibility and shoot off at the slightest sign of movement. The music was familiar, irritatingly so, but he could not seem to put his finger on exactly where he had heard it before. It was a female singer, with a raspy, soulful voice. For some reason his mind was associating the song with Sam, though he could not remember why.

He paused and closed his eyes when the chorus started, trying to place the lyrics. It was not until the singer insisted "_that's not my name, that's not my name, that's not my name, that's not my name..._" that his eyes finally snapped open and he remembered. The song was played in the background of Horrible Bosses, which was one of Sam's favorite movies. He chuckled as the scene replayed itself in his mind's eye. It was one of many scenes that made Sam choke for how hard she was laughing. "I'm gonna marry Charlie Day." She declared every single time she watched that movie.

He crept around the corner concealing the building and peeked out, glancing both ways down the cross street to find that he was still completely alone. He moved forward slowly, feeling a little ridiculous for how terrified he felt. The door to the building was slightly ajar, and it did not take much force to push it open. He stepped forward cautiously, the toe of his shoe barely brushing the threshold.

The door revealed the entire first floor, which was empty save for a few overturned chairs and desks. Every available surface was coated in a thick layer of dust; he could even see legions of dust swirling in the air, thrown into sharp relief as they danced through the slats of sunlight pouring in through the row of windows that formed a ring on the wall up near the ceiling. Thick pillars were strategically placed around the room, and he could see the speaker pounding out the music propped up against a closet door in the back right corner.

He stepped in cautiously, glancing behind himself nervously. He was still alone. His feet stirred up large clouds of dust as he moved toward the speaker, peering curiously around for the source of power. Electricity was a luxury he had not even heard of since The Event. He could not see any apparent signs of cords connecting the speaker to a power source.

The music was far louder in here than it was even outside. As he approached, his eyes started to water from the mixture of the pounding bass and disturbed dust. He coughed as he breathed some of it in.

Danny stopped just a few feet from the speaker, staring at it blankly. The black box was suspiciously void of the layer of dust that coated every other surface of the room, but the only footsteps he could see were his own. It was all very strange. He stretched his hand out, fingers moving to brush against the surface, when he heard the faintest click out of time with the beat of the music.

He whirled around and zeroed in on a thin, sickly zombie blocking the doorway. His grey eyes were on Danny's face, and his bloody lips were pulled away from a set of gnarled, decaying teeth in a snarl. The zombie growled, lurching forward, dragging his mangled left leg behind. Danny froze, his limbs locked in fear as the zombie slowly approached. Intangibility bubbled just below the surface, ready at any moment for Danny to push. But he remained frozen, suddenly imagining the way Sam's face twisted in sheer terror in the moments before her car slammed into the gas pump and her life ended. That zombie no longer threatened death. It gave Danny a way out. It quietly offered to bring about what Danny had been foolishly avoiding for over a year: a way to see everyone he loved again. It promised him the opportunity to see his parents, his sister, Tucker, and Sam in whatever lay beyond this damned life.

And so instead of running, or flying, Danny sat very still and closed his eyes. He could distantly hear the sounds of the zombie struggling to approach over the thudding bass of The Ting Tings playing on repeat._ I'm coming, Sam_, he thought.

"What the hell are you doing, midnight?" A female voice demanded sharply. He barely had time to turn before a blur of black and maroon shot past him, slamming into the side of the zombie with a sickening crunch. The zombie fell and Danny's savior landed in a crouch, busily checking the zombie with practiced hands for any signs of life. Through the suddenly clear doorway, Danny could clearly see a horde of zombies closing in on the building.

The girl glanced up. "_Shit_." She hissed. She left the dead zombie forgotten on the floor, turning on her heel toward Danny and running. She seized his arm, right above the crease of his elbow, and dragged him along, shoving the speaker out of the way and ripping the closet door open. He registered a few rats scuttling past, squeaking in indignation at the intruders, before he was shoved inside. His savior slammed the door shut behind them, plunging the small room into complete darkness. Blood rushed in his ears, spurring him into action, but he remained on his feet, shifting his weight nervously from one to the other. He wanted desperately to fly away from the mess, promising himself that his feet would never touch solid ground again, but he could not leave this girl here. Something about her reminded him of the home he had before The Event, though he could not place why. In the brief glimpse he caught of her, she appeared to be a wild, frazzled human being; thick, tangled curls of hair blocked most of the defining features of her face, though he saw enough to gather her skin was the color of rich milk chocolate. Her head was the only thing about her that was exposed, the rest of her skin hidden beneath a black-and-maroon body suit. He wondered how she could handle such confining clothes when the heat was so unbearable.

"Don't you _dare_ close your eyes." She muttered, tightening her grip on the door handle. Danny threw his head back, choking down the urge to scream as the door began to rattle violently beneath the girl's hand. He could feel her bending, keeping her entire bodyweight against the door as the sounds of building chaos infiltrated their space. The music was still blasting, though it sounded strange and warped as it weaved through arms and legs to reach them. "If you want to stay alive, you'll keep those baby blues wide open. Got it?" And despite the fact that he had never been more terrified in his entire life than in that moment, he found himself nodding.

The darkness suddenly hit his senses like a brick wall. "Yes," He choked out, shaking his head roughly at his moment of stupidity.

"Good." She was breathing heavily with the effort it was taking to keep the door closed. "In the center of the room there's a lightbulb. A chain. Find it, and turn it on."

Danny did as she instructed, reaching blindly until his fingers caught the long chain the girl mentioned. He yanked the chain down, blinking rapidly to adjust to the sudden light that flooded the small room. He looked at the girl, just to find that her hair was still mussed and blocking her face from him. He was a little surprised to find that his own hair was long enough to do the same for him.

"F-Fenton?" The girl gasped. Danny froze, his eyes going wide beneath his hair. _How does she know who I am?_ "But you're dead!"

"No," He said slowly, momentarily forgetting about the army of zombies attempting to beat the door down. "Do I know you?"

"It's me!" She brushed her hair out of her face impatiently, and suddenly her face was exposed. Danny gasped.

His savior was Valerie.

"Valerie?" He choked.

She opened her mouth excitedly, but she was cut off by a particularly loud gutteral howl produced by one of the zombies. "There'll be time to talk in a minute, we've got to get out of here." She grunted, banging the heel of her hand into their side of the door. "Go away you assholes!"

"What do we do?" Danny asked, his fear mounting. "I don't know what to do!"

"How have you been alive this long and you don't know what do to?" Valerie demanded, throwing him a look of fury. But then, her eyes widened. "You're a ghost! That's right! You can get us out of here!"

"How did you know -"

"Nevermind, get us the hell out of here!" Valerie practically leapt into his arms. He conceded, flashing to Phantom and forcing intangibility over himself and Valerie. He kicked off just as the door burst open and the zombies poured in. He floated above them, listening to the way Valerie gasped and adjusted to intangibility, before gliding out into the street. He dropped Valerie just outside the door, landing lightly on his feet and flashing to Fenton as she slammed the door shut on the zombies. "That's gonna hold them for a while. Damn. That was our best speaker..."

"Yo, Gray!" A masculine voice called from further down the street. Valerie glanced toward the source, shielding her eyes from the sun. Danny caught a look of disgust bending Valerie's features as he looked toward the source as well.

A thin man who looked just a little bit older than they were was loping down the street, his arms open and hands up as a sign of peace. Danny took in the stained wife beater and ripped jeans, barely covering a pair of combat boots not unlike Sam's adorning his feet. His hair was light brown and cropped close to his head, and Danny could see several scars winding down the man's arms.

"Lars." Valerie muttered, dropping her hand to cross her arms over her chest. She stepped out into the street, slightly in front of Danny, her eyes still fixed on Lars.

"Quite a scare you just had." Lars said, motioning toward the building where the music was still blasting and the zombies were still hunting. "Thought I was gonna have to come in there and save your ass."

"Yeah, well, I handled it." She spat. "Did you want somethin'? Other than to annoy the shit out of us?"

"Who's that?" Lars pointed to Danny, any pretense of manners gone.

"None of your damn business." Valerie snarled. "Walk on!"

"Listen, man, if you get sick o' her shit, come find me. We'll talk." Lars said, raising an eyebrow. He spared one last look of disdain at Valerie, before turning on his heel and strutting lazily down the street. "Tell midnight I'm waitin' for her!" He shouted over his shoulder.

Valerie stuck her middle finger up and jammed it toward his back, before rolling her eyes and looking back at Danny. "That was a douche you _don't_ wanna get involved with." She said, before taking off down the street in the opposite direction from Lars. She motioned for Danny to follow her, which he did without hesitation.

"_Christ_, Fenton, how're you still alive?" She asked as they walked, peering at him curiously. Danny got the impression that she did not really believe he was there, as if she thought that he was a figment of her imagination. "I thought for _sure_ you were dead when I saw your house...or your lack of house."

"I just...um..."

"Oh, I get it. You flew out. Tight." She grinned, showing no signs of animosity toward the fact that he was Danny Phantom in another life.

"You don't want to kill me?" He asked.

"Why would I wanna kill you?"

"'Cause I was Danny Phantom."

"Oh. No, I don't really give a shit about any of that anymore." She shrugged, turning her gaze back toward the horizon. "Y'know, it's actually really helpful that you're a ghost. Jesus, we could have used you. Could've saved so many people..." Her voice trailed and her eyes glazed as she lost herself in memories. Danny let her mind wander for thirty seconds.

"I have a lot of questions." He said slowly, watching the way the road slowly transferred into dirt as they walked. Valerie shook her head, snapping herself out of her trance, and gazed at him expectantly. "How was that speaker working?"

"What d'you mean?"

"It wasn't running on electricity, was it? I haven't seen working electricity since before The Event..."

"The what?"

"Oh...the night that...um...y'know..."

"Oh. Right. Um, no, it's not running on electricity. It's solar powered. Everything we use is solar powered."

"We?"

"I'm part of a group. A resistance, I guess. I dunno. Yeah, Tucker fig-"

Danny stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widening to comic proportions. "T-Tucker?" He gasped. "Tucker _Foley_?"

Valerie stopped as well, her eyes widening in apprehension. "Yeah..." She said uncertainly.

Danny felt his knees weakening. "He's alive?" He whispered.

"Of _course_ he's alive. Why wouldn't...?" Her voice trailed again as comprehension dawned on her face. "You thought he was _dead_?"

"I s-saw him!" He could feel tears pricking at his eyes, threatening to spill over. "I saw him, in Sam's car, when they crashed into the gas pump! _Why are you shaking your head?_"

She was shaking her head frantically, so hard that her head was almost a blur. "That wasn't them." She said.

He felt his knees hit the ground as they gave way, his mind and body reeling with the news. Valerie was crouched beside him in an instant, her hands on his shoulders, lightly slapping his face. "Danny?"

"They're dead." His voice sounded strange, like it was coming through a long tube. "I saw them. They were in her car. They were driving, and then they crashed. She crashed into a gas pump and they exploded. They died. I saw them."

"Danny, someone else hotwired Sam's car that night. They stole her car and crashed it into a gas pump. That wasn't Sam _or_ Tucker."

"How do you know?"

"Because they were with me, looking for you!" Valerie seized his face, looking him dead in the eye. "Danny, Tucker and Sam are alive. Very much alive."

* * *

**Please don't kill me too hard.**

**Thanks.**

**- Tori**


	5. Chapter Four

**Sorry for the delay in updates, preparing for finals and stuff. 'Tis the season.**

**Okay, so, I've been doing my homework on this zombie fic. I've watched Zombieland approximately 9123409123987 times, I've read the three _The Enemy_ books available in America a million times, and I'm in the middle of my first read-through of _World War Z_. I've watched the preview for _WWZ _about 900 times, along with the preview for _Warm Bodies_. I've literally been drowning in zombies for the last week, and that's just in my down time.**

**With that being said, I've...er...borrowed a few elements from those other mediums in this chapter. I'll do a more specific disclaimer in the footnote, because I don't want to give anything away about this chapter up here, but I don't own certain terms and ideas used in this chapter, along with any of the characters you recognize.**

**Rather low-grade graphic live-action kill scenes in this chapter. Be aware.**

**I don't own Danny Phantom. Enjoy.**

* * *

**Wide Awake**

**Chapter Four**

**December 3, 2012**

* * *

For several moments, Danny could not move. He merely stared, his knees digging into the dirt road, as Valerie attempted to make him respond. It was too much for his mind to process; for over a year, he wandered the United States, coming close to the borders of Mexico and Canada multiple times, because he was convinced there was nothing for him on the ground, just to be told by his ex-girlfriend of all people that his best friends were alive the entire time.

"Take me to them." He said, his voice hollow and hoarse.

"Get up, then." Valerie said. Danny scrambled to his feet immediately, his eyes flickering from blue to green as he did. Valerie took a cautious step back, her own eyes widening at the action, but she did not comment. She shook her head and gestured down the dirt road. "It's this way."

"Where are we?" Danny asked, desperately trying to keep his nerves out of his voice.

"Clifton, Texas." She said, her eyes on the horizon.

"How did you guys end up in Texas?" He asked, incredulity evident in his tone.

"We knew Paulina's folks had property out here, and she mentioned there was a bit of a cliff within the property, so...we struck out for the ranch." She heaved a great sigh. "'_El lindo relajo_.' Know what it means?" Danny winced and shook his head. "It's Spanish. It means 'a beautiful mess.' It's the name of the ranch."

"And Tucker and Sam are on the ranch?" Danny asked.

"Yep. Everyone is. We've been there for about nine months."

"Where were you guys for the first three?"

It was Valerie's turn to wince. "Um...here and there. We drifted for a while. We weren't really sure what we were doing, we were just...trying to stay alive. Y'know, surviving. We...we lost a lot of people back then." Her eyes were clouded and fixated on something Danny could not see. "It was really, really hard for a while. We were just trying to take it day by day, y'know? It was after about a month that Paulina said something about her ranch."

"Paulina's here?" Danny interrupted.

Valerie shook her head. "Not anymore."

The silence between them was nearly palpable. Danny swallowed hard.

"Look," Valerie glanced at him, her eyes still cautious. "I need to know right now if you're planning on staying with us. There's work that needs to be done if you are, we're gonna have to take an extra mouth into consideration when we're gathering food, and we're gonna have to find another bed, and fit you in with the rest of the barracks..."

"I'm gonna stay." Danny said firmly. "And don't worry about sleep, I'll just bunk with Sam and Tucker. As for food...what?"

Valerie was eyeing him uneasily at his words. "Um...I don't know if sleeping with Tucker and Sam is such a good idea, Danny."

"What do you mean?" He asked, his steps faltering. "Why isn't it a good idea?"

"Look...they're really not the same people they were before. They're not the same Tucker and Sam. They've been through a lot...and they've been operating for the last year under the impression that you're...dead. They...they're different, okay?"

"They can't be _that_ different," Danny said, shaking his head. "I mean, yeah, I would expect a change, a major change, but it's not like they won't be happy to see me, right?"

Valerie was silent, her face still creased in uncertainty. "Honestly, I don't know how they're going to react. They're sort of...unpredictable now. Sometimes they react exactly the way I am expecting them to react, and then other times...they do the complete opposite of what I'm planning on. I can't tell you either way what they're going to do, but I can say with absolute certainty that, at least at first, you shouldn't plan on sleeping with them."

"Well it's not like the cots aren't going to be all together...right?" Danny asked hopefully.

"Um...okay, first of all, you've never even seen this ranch, so..." She sighed. "Most of our group does sleep in one central location, with the exceptions of me, Tucker, and Sam. I have my own room. Tucker and Sam share a room. Everyone else...well, they like to sleep outside."

Danny pushed the alarm he felt away, choosing to focus on Valerie. "How did you get your own room?"

"It was my dad's. But he's not with us anymore." Her eyes glazed over again. "He...um...he left."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Danny extended his hand and squeezed Valerie's shoulder, which she responded to with a weak smile.

"It's okay. The messed up thing about it is that it actually happens pretty often." She shook her head, sighed again, and turned her head back to the horizon. The road was beginning to curve to the left and the escalation was beginning to rise, along with Danny's heartbeat. "We're getting close."

"So...so Tucker and Sam share a room, huh?" Danny tried to keep his voice even. He saw Valerie shoot him a look, confirming that he had given himself away.

"Yeah. And I know what you're next question is gonna be. No, they aren't, but they act like they are."

"What?"

"They're not dating. They're not romantically involved in any way. At all. But they act like they are. Kind of like you and Manson used to act."

For some reason, Danny felt a savage wave of jealousy wash through him at her words. "Sam and I...we basically _were_ dating before the Event. I never ever would have admitted it to anyone back then, but we were. How do you know that they aren't -"

"Because Tucker and I are involved."

"Involved? What does that -"

"We have sex, okay? We do it from time to time. He's interested in me, not her. I can guarantee it. They just...that night, they lost everyone they cared about, including you. They felt like the only thing they had left besides the clothes on their backs was each other. And for a while, that's how they acted. They wouldn't fight, they wouldn't even leave the bunker. They just clung to each other in the corner and Sam cried. She cried for, like, two weeks straight. It was really freaking weird. I had never seen her cry before. But then one day they went from 'you're the only thing I have left' to 'you're the only thing I have to lose.' And, Jesus Christ, did they act like it."

"Could...could you please explain what you mean?" Danny asked slowly, closing his eyes and trying to calm his breathing.

"They became a team. At first, they went out and fought and stayed side-by-side the entire time. One never let the other out of their sights. And then they started working together, playing off of each other as they fought. And now..."

Valerie paused, her eyes squinted and fixed on a spot in the distance. They were at the top of a rather shallow hill, offering the perfect vantage point to scan the horizon, which is exactly what Danny did. He was met with a rather intimidating cliff a few miles south east of where they stood, shrouded with thick green foliage. It protruded rather boldly from the otherwise flat lands around them. The sun was starting its' decent, throwing the scene into an intensified light.

"You hear that?" Valerie asked. Danny held his breath and listened carefully. At first, the only sound that reached him was the wind stirring the dust up at his feet and tickling the branches of the trees some feet off to his right. But then, just barely discernible through the silence, he heard a strange electronic chord progression echoing across a great distance to them.

"Is that music?" Danny asked, turning to Valerie and cocking an eyebrow.

"Yep. It's our signal. The Zack Bowl is starting."

"I'm sorry?"

"Can you fly us to that cliff over there?" Valerie pointed to the cliff. "I'll explain when we get there, but we need to hurry if we're gonna catch the beginning."

Without another word, Danny lifted Valerie by the armpits and raced across the wide field that separated them from the cliff. He scanned the ground beneath them as they soared, searching for signs of life. He found none.

The music was much louder by the time they reached the gates of the property. The fence was only a series of three parallel poles, easily accessible to the undead. Danny soared over, clearing his throat as they passed the front gates. Valerie rolled her eyes and gestured impatiently toward the cliff.

At the very edge, Danny could see lights flashing and dancing, moving like a fire. As they neared, he realized it was a fire, a huge twisting bonfire, coupled with human legs rushing past the fire to reach...

"Where are they going?" Danny asked, shouting over the wind.

"To the Bowl. The Sanchez family had a small soccer stadium built out here when Paulina was five and thought she wanted to be a professional soccer player. We converted it into the Zack Bowl. Let us down here."

Danny lowered them to the ground, his eyes wide as he flashed to Fenton. The trees and brush were thick where they stood, but it did not conceal the movement of at least fifty people making their way into a sizeable stadium, built right there in the trees. Valerie chuckled at his open-mouthed look of shock, before brushing past him. "C'mon, they're about to start, and I have to make the announcements."

He followed Valerie closely as she weaved through the crowd toward the entrance. Two large men that Danny had never seen before flanked the entrance of the stadium, their faces masks of curiosity as they took in Danny's appearance. For the first time since the Event, Danny wondered what he looked like. He wondered how wild his face was, or his hair, or clothes, after roaming the country for a year.

"He's with me." Valerie said as she breezed past the guards. They let Danny pass without comment, though he could feel their eyes on his back as he retreated. Valerie opened a side door, away from the large ramp the crowd was currently filing up, and gestured for Danny to go ahead of her.

The door gave way to a short hallway, darkened with shadows, that ended with another doorway. Danny opened it cautiously and found a rather long ladder bolted to the walls. Valerie slipped past him, gave him a reassuring smile, and began to climb up the ladder. Danny sighed and followed, wondering whether or not he should just leave and find Sam and Tucker himself.

"You're not gonna want to try to find them, now." Valerie said as they climbed. "They're getting ready for the Bowl. They hate being interrupted when they're getting ready for the Bowl."

"What _is_ the Bowl?" Danny huffed. Valerie ignored him, shoving a trap door open. He growled as she crawled through it and disappeared, stepping up his pace to keep up with her.

The trap door opened to the center of a small announcer's booth. Valerie was already settled in the left chair, straightening a stack of papers on a desk cluttered with electronics as Danny carefully closed the trap door and collapsed in the right chair. "The Zack Bowl is a competition we do every week. It's one of the only things that keeps us sane."

"What _is it_?" Danny asked, not bothering to conceal his annoyance.

"Well if you would let me _finish_, I would _tell_ you!" Valerie snapped. "The Zack Bowl is something we came up with about five months ago. We were all getting antsy. You know, at first, we were just happy we found somewhere that kept us completely safe. That whole theory about zombies not being able to climb is...it's absolutely one-hundred percent true. They can't get up here. And for a long time, we were really happy that we were finally safe. But after a while...well, we were getting bored. Not everyone goes out to gather up food. In fact, most don't. So they were getting really, really bored, and when the world is ending, the _last_ thing you want to worry about is the survivors getting bored."

"Do you have any idea how insane you sound right now?" Danny asked, his disbelief obvious in his face.

Valerie huffed. "I know. We really didn't mean for it to turn into such a huge production, but...I don't know, it just happened. The gatherers started this thing, they called it the Zack Kill of the Week."

"What's a Zack?"

"It's our term for zombie. Sam started calling them Zacks after Lars left us and the accident happened."

"...I have so many questions from that sentence alone," Danny massaged his temples. "Finish telling me about the Bowl, then, and I'll ask those later."

Valerie snorted. "Anyways, we started the Zack Kill of the Week, and whoever killed a Zack the most creative way won for the week. It was a joke, something to keep the situation at least a little light. Well, we kept talking about the Kills of the Week, and it was after Sam and Tucker dropped a fucking _piano_ on this poor bastard Zack that the rest of the group demanded that they _see_ the Zack Kills of the Week, and that they be the judges of the whole thing. Of course, it's really really dangerous to move our entire group out into the open just so they can be apart of some silly contest a few of us made up, so we had to think of a way to let them be involved without putting them in any real danger.

"Using the stadium was Tucker's idea. Up until then, this was nothing but a gigantic waste of space. A few Zacks get in to our land on a daily basis, so a few of us go out and round them all up and keep them in this sealed storage unit the Sanchez's have at the bottom of the hill. Every week, on Friday afternoon, Sam and Tucker hook that storage unit to the back of the truck and haul those Zacks up here to the stadium, and every Friday night our entire group gathers in the stadium and watches us kill a bunch of Zacks." She sighed, glancing out the window toward the sizable crowd now lounging on the benches raised eight feet above the stadium, which was flooded with artificial light. "I know it's stupid, and I know it's absolutely insane, but...it's killing Zacks and it's keeping the group happy. That's my main goal."

Danny chewed on the inside of his cheek. "I guess." He said uncertainly. "Do Tucker and Sam fight?"

"Please," Valerie scoffed. "They're the fan favorites. They're part of the team division, but they're the freaking main event around here. Everyone loves watching Tuck and Sam kill Zacks." Valerie glanced at the clock mounted on the wall to her left, which read six o'seven, straightened in her chair, and dragged a small microphone toward her place. "I'll answer all of your questions right after the Bowl. No phasing out. Let them win this fair and square, got it?"

Danny nodded. Valerie cleared her throat and flipped a small switch on the base of the microphone stand. "It's that time again," She sang, her voice echoing across the stadium. The crowd cheered, many jumping to their feet in their enthusiasm. "Y'all know who's up first, give him a little love!"

The crowd renewed their energy as a metallic garage-like door rattled up, allowing a short, pudgy man to jog out from the shadowy tunnel. Valerie flipped the microphone off as the boy jogged to the center of the field, smiling and waving at the crowd. "That's Lester. Recognize him?"

"Holy crap." Danny breathed. His eyes darted from Lester to the crowd. "They're going insane."

"This isn't even _half_ the noise they're gonna make when Tuck and Sam come out." She flipped the switch back on. "Alright, Lester, let's see whatcha got..."

She flipped the microphone off and leaned back, her eyes ablaze with excitement as another metallic door opposite the one Lester emerged from rattled open. Danny watched in horror as a zombie twice the size of Lester came shuffling out, its' arms stiff and raised as it tried to rush at the only reachable human on the field. Lester dodged the creature easily, and even from the distance Danny could see a look of grim excitement on his old classmate's face.

"Before Plague Z, there was Friday night football." Valerie paused as Lester's foot swiped out at the zombie's knees, causing the creature's legs to buckle, sending it crashing to the ground. The crowd cheered savagely. "Now, we have Friday night Zack attacks."

Danny could not find his voice. It died there in his throat as Lester planted one foot on the creature's neck, holding the beast down, before swinging his other foot back. His toe connected to the back of the zombie's head, and Danny could easily see the skull cave in around Lester's foot. The crowd's cheers were reaching deafening levels as Lester raised his arms in victory.

"Nice." Valerie chuckled. She flipped the switch on the microphone. "Excellent, dude, as usual. Let's hear it one more time for good ol' Lester." She paused, giving the audience enough time to cheer again.

This went on for some time, as one after another single men and women braved the field and killed zombies for sport. Danny saw zombies lose their heads to a chainsaw, an axe, garden clippers, and edgers. One girl even managed to kill a zombie using a banjo ("Aw, man, I loved that banjo!" Valerie shouted into the microphone as the instrument splintered and broke into several pieces). The sun was fully below the horizon, the only source of light being the floodlights above the stadium, when Valerie finally made the announcement that it was time for the teams division.

"And, as we all know, Clarissa sprained her ankle last week, which leaves the only functioning team Tucker and Sam, so...I guess...they win by default! Which means no more kills tonight! Everybody go home!"

She paused, giggling lightly at the sounds of protest rising up from the audience. "Aw, c'mon," She choked into the microphone. "You know I wouldn't do that to y'all!"

She flipped the microphone off as the loudest cheer yet rose from the bleachers. The garage door rattled open again, and for a moment, there was absolutely no movement. Danny realized he was perched on the edge of his seat, gripping the desk so hard his knuckles were white. _What's taking them so long?_

The thought had barely formed in his mind when a sudden burst of movement made him jump. A large red RV burst forth from the confines of the tunnel. Two figures straddled the RV, dressed in all black and topped with two shining black helmets. As they drove in a wide circle around the edge of the field, Danny could easily recognize them and tell the two apart, even after nearly thirteen months of separation.

Tucker slowed down long enough for Sam to slide of the back of the RV. She landed in a roll as he drove away, stopping herself in a defensive crouch as the crowd went wild. She straightened, but made no acknowledgement of the crowd. Her helmet was thick, concealing her face, but Danny could feel her scanning the audience. He felt her eyes dart over the announcers box, and he wondered if she could see a second figure next to Valerie.

"They don't really need an introduction, so...y'know, kill some Zacks and stuff, y'all."

The second garage door rattled open, and Danny could see Sam's entire body stiffening as she turned to the opening. Over the swell of noise from the audience, he could barely hear the sounds of the RV's engine revving as Tucker prepared. He had to remind himself how to breathe.

Three zombies came tearing out of the hallway, obviously freshly turned and not yet in the rigor mortis stages of decay. Tucker revved the engine almost violently, drawing their attention toward him, which was apparently exactly what he wanted them to do. As the three zombies lurched toward him, Sam took off at a sprint, her legs and arms pumping to propel herself forward. Tucker accelerated just as the zombies reached him, earning three ear-piercing howls from the zombies and shouts of approval from the audience. The zombies tripped over themselves as they attempted to follow, giving Sam enough time to catch up to them. She whipped a thin stick-looking object out from beneath her shirt and rammed it into one of the zombie's neck, yanking up violently. The zombie's head split in half, sending the creature falling to the ground with a dull finality. Sam whirled around as the audience cheered, her focus on the snarling zombie that stayed behind.

Danny barely registered the sounds of Tucker running the other zombie over with the RV as Sam and her zombie slowly paced in a wide circle, keeping an equal distance between each other. His heart was about to burst with anticipation when finally, something happened.

Sam suddenly took off across the field, earning another swell of sound from the audience. The zombie was close on her heels, and for a moment Danny could swear the thing had a hold of Sam's shirt. But she slipped away, curving into a large, lazy arc as she ran. He was so absorbed in watching Sam's every move that he did not register Tucker looping around to ride beside Sam.

He finally recognized that Tucker was coming to Sam's rescue, though, when the boy pulled in slightly in front of Sam and stretched his arm back to her. To Danny's astonishment, Sam seized his arm with her left arm, reaching back with her right to pull out another concealed weapon. She held the bat-like weapon by the thicker end of the stick, latching on to Tucker's arm with both hands.

Tucker yanked her forward, but instead of pulling her onto the RV behind him, he kept swinging his arm around. Sam used the momentum, adding to it by planting her feet on the hood of the RV and pushing, to swing all the way around Tucker. She was catapulted back toward the zombie, her feet not even touching the ground, as she raised the bat.

In one fluid motion, she swung the bat using her full body weight and connected with the zombie's head. The creature collapsed as Sam tumbled to the ground, rolling along the field. Her helmet came off, offering Danny his first look at her face. He was too far away to really make out any details, other than her midnight black hair was far longer than he remembered. It was tied back in a loose braid, but he could see it reached about mid-way down her upper arms. She was pulling herself to her feet amid the deafening roar from the audience as Tucker pulled in beside her and yanked his own helmet off.

"Jesus, I think we know who the winner is," Valerie muttered into the microphone. "Congrats, guys, now get outta here."

The audience was packing up and moving toward the exits as Valerie shut the microphone off. "So, whaddya think?" She asked.

Danny did not answer right away. He was watching Tucker and Sam moving across the field, their arms around each other, talking and laughing. He swallowed hard. "I think I want to go see them. Now."

Valerie did not move. "Let's give them enough time to get down to the locker room and change. They're not gonna want to see anyone until they've showered and everything and...I have a feeling that as soon as they see you...they're gonna forget about everything else. At least, for a while. Here, ask me a question, and I'll answer it, and then we can go down."

"Who was Lars talking about when he said 'tell midnight I'm waiting for her?'"

Valerie swallowed. "Ask me another question."

"Why did Lars leave?"

"Um...next?"

Danny exhaled noisily through his nose. "Why does Sam call zombies Zacks?"

"She was nearly killed by a zombie wearing a name tag with the name Zack on it."

"Was she involved in the accident you mentioned earlier?"

"That was the accident I mentioned earlier. We got careless, Tucker, Sam, and I, and we got trapped down in this basement by a bunch of Zacks. Sam was bracing the door, Tucker was trying to pry this emergency exit open, and I...was video taping the entire thing."

"D'you still have the tapes?"

Valerie nodded.

"I want to see them."

"Before or after you talk to Tucker and Sam?"

Danny paused, deliberating. "Before."

"Let's go, then."

* * *

**Zacks**** - This term for zombies was borrowed from _World War Z_, from the chapter titled _The Great Panic_, in Todd Wainio's account, which is the last account recorded in that chapter. He never explains why he calls them Zacks, though, so I made that part up.**

**[Zombie] Kill of the Week**** - from Zombieland, obviously.**

**Next chapter should be up within the week. Keep an eye on it. Again, rating will probably change.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**- Tori**


	6. Chapter Five

**Well dang. That took a lot longer than I was expecting.**

**Sorry. ):**

**My last final starts in about five minutes, so I'm gonna make this quick. The reunion is not in this chapter. Sowwie. Shooting for the next chapter on that bit.**

**And this chapter is much shorter than the others.**

**I don't own Danny Phantom. But I do love you. :D**

* * *

**Wide Awake**

**Chapter Five**

**December 11, 2012**

* * *

Valerie led him down and out of the stadium, marching him through the grounds of the ranch. A few dozen people were still milling about, chatting animatedly about the Zack Bowl. Several people Danny almost recognized did double takes when they saw him, but Valerie did not let him pause to investigate. "We'll watch it in my room," She told him as they breezed past a group Danny was sure made up part of the marching band from his high school. "I have the only working VCR in the entire ranch."

"VCR? What is this, the stone ages?" Danny asked before thinking.

"Worse." Valerie muttered. She led him directly into a thicket of trees, swatting at stray branches in annoyance. Danny trailed along, wondering if he made the right decision in wanting to see this video before Tucker and Sam. "It's important that you see this video." Valerie tossed back at him over her shoulder, as if reading his mind. "It's gonna answer and explain a lot of questions you don't even know you have about them. And me."

The ranch was a rather small structure, something Danny was not prepared for. Knowing Paulina as well as he did, he had an image of a towering castle looming up through the forest in his mind; instead, he was greeted with the sight of a modest, one-story structure that had obviously been added on to. "This is the _Sanchez's_ ranch?" Danny asked incredulously.

"I know. We were underwhelmed, too. It's bigger than it looks, but...not by much. I guess they didn't really spend much time inside while they were out here. At least, her parents didn't. Paulina's room was obviously a princess castle. But everything else about this house is a legitimate ranch." Valerie yanked a rusting and loudly protesting gate open and held it for Danny to pass through. He paused just inside the fence surrounding the house, waiting for Valerie to resecure the gate. She breezed past him, up the small concrete path, toward the front door. He was a little surprised to find that it was unlocked. Again, Valerie held it open for him.

The first room that he entered was very obviously once the front porch of the house, converted into a small family room. The floor beneath his feet was cobbled and worn with weather. Danny stared down at it, before glancing up and grimacing at the large stuffed deer head mounted on the walls over a beat-up leather couch. He wondered what Sam's reaction was when she first saw the abomination against such a harmless animal. A ring of dingy, mismatched chairs circled the room, and in the center a small coffee table, riddled with scuffs and rings from cool cups with no coasters stood proudly. A half-eaten sandwich on a plate was off to one corner.

"They never clean up after themselves, it's like they were born and raised in the middle of no where." Valerie muttered as she spotted the food. She sighed loudly and pushed Danny's shoulder. "C'mon, my room's this way."

She led him to the far side of the room, up a nearly invisible step (which he did not notice until it tripped him) and into a small dining room. A long table, big enough to seat eight, was in this room, which creaked loudly beneath his feet. He glanced down to find ancient wooden floors discolored from hundreds of feet trooping through, scratched from the legs of chairs being dragged back and forth across the surface. He wondered how many times Sam's feet had passed over those floors. "This way," Valerie sang, distracting him from his thoughts. He glanced up to find a second doorway, directly across from where he was standing, that gave way to a tiny kitchen, littered with dirty dishes. He felt Valerie tugging on his arm, and he turned in the direction she was pulling him.

Two other doorways stood across from each other on the opposite end of the room. One was obviously part of the original house; the bright blue paint was faded and chipping in spots, and the doorknob looked as if it would disintegrate under rough handling. Valerie was pulling him toward the other doorway, which looked new and very out of place in the rustic home. Two pristine white French doors, complete with curtained windows, were closed tight to the outside world.

Valerie opened them with little flourish, stepping to one side to allow Danny to pass through. The bedroom was spacious, considering the sizes of the other rooms he had seen thus far. A king-sized bed was pushed against the far wall, and a chest of drawers stood against the opposite wall. A large television with a built-in VCR was teetering haphazardly on the piece of furniture.

"Go sit. I'll cue the tape up." Valerie shut the doors and pushed him toward her bed, turning her back to rifle through her drawers. Danny did as she instructed, settling on the edge of the bed and pulling his feet up so that his knees were against his chest. He counted to thirty-seven before Valerie finally turned around, the television screen alive with movement as the tape attempted to start itself. She was just settling beside him, mirroring his pose, when the screen suddenly flashed from white noise to blue, to black, and then to a dark, blurry image.

Valerie paused the screen before the image could sharpen. "We were in downtown Dallas, scavenging for food. It was just me, Tucker, and Sam. We went into this really nondescript building, and we were all messing around, when this horde of Zacks came. They blocked all the exits, so we went down. We got trapped in the storage closet, just like you and I did earlier. I had a camera, and don't ask me why, but I started recording it. I wanted people to know, if we died, that we went down fighting. I wanted them to know what happened to us."

She gave him a searching gaze, imploring him to understand. And he did. He nodded, unable to break eye contact with her. She swallowed, sucked in a deep breath, and turned back toward the television. She hit play just as Danny looked back as well.

At first, the only things his senses detected were fast movement and loud noise. He could hear a large, swelling moan, which made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He could see blurry figures moving like waves in the ocean.

And then, as his eyes grew accustomed to the way the film was done, he started picking out other things. He heard a high-pitched whine, from one of the girls fighting off her sense of panic. He saw a flash of red, far too bright to be blood, that he assumed was Tucker's beret. "Faster, faster!" that was Sam, he was sure of it. "They're right behind us!"

"On your right!" Tucker's voice was deep, far deeper than Danny remembered. Suddenly there was a sound of scuffling, Valerie's voice breaking as she cried out, and a slamming door. The screen went pitch black, and for a moment the only thing Danny could hear was labored breathing and muffled moans. And then a faint click, and the closet was flooded with light.

Sam was on the ground, her heels digging into the floor, her back flush against the closet door. She was gasping for air, a light sheen of sweat coating her face and neck, and she was staring at Valerie through wide, panicked eyes. "You're recording this?" She demanded through her gasps.

Valerie did not seem to have time to answer. There was a great thundering crash as something outside the door rammed into it, and even through the fuzzy quality of the image, Danny could see Sam's entire body lurching under the force.

"_Help me_!" Sam shrieked. The picture was blurred with jerky movements as Valerie propped the camera up on a shelf, and suddenly she came into view as well. She dove down beside Sam and threw her body weight into the door, holding it back from the onslaught of attacks from the outside. "Tucker!"

"I found a vent, we might be able to get out through there!" He suddenly appeared on the right edge of the screen, gazing down at the girls through a haze of terror. "Just hold on a little longer, I'll pry the cover off and we can get out of here!"

"Hurry...up!" Valerie grunted. Tucker vanished again, and for a few seconds, the only thing Danny could see was the girls, faces creased with determination, holding the door closed as Tucker desperately dug for a way out.

"I got it, come on!" Valerie scrambled to her feet, diving toward the camera. She turned the lens back on Sam just in time to capture a rotting hand bursting _through_ the wooden door and closing on Sam's throat.

Valerie screamed. Tucker released a strange, strangled shout. Sam's eyes were bulging, her hands scrabbling against the fingers locked in a death-grip around her windpipe. Her mouth was wide in a silent scream. Despite the camera quaking violently as Valerie panicked, he could see the zombie's nails slicing through Sam's neck, four thin red trails dribbling down her neck.

Tucker was suddenly on top of her. Danny could see just enough to understand that he had seized the zombie's wrist and was yanking it into the room. The zombie's forearm was suddenly exposed, and with a caveman-like roar, Tucker swung his fist down right on the crease of the zombie's elbow. The zombie's arm snapped like a dry twig, falling uselessly to the floor of the closet. Sam was gasping, her eyes streaming, as she held her neck. Tucker yanked her away from the door as another hand appeared, nails scraping against wood and thin air as the three made their escape. He saw Tucker and Sam disappear into the vent, followed quickly by Valerie. Suddenly the image sped up. He glanced to his right and saw Valerie fast-forwarding. "Nothing special. Just crawling." She muttered, her eyes glassy and fixated on the screen. She pressed play when the video showed the trio on the roof of the building.

Sam was doubled over, on her knees, her shoulders quaking with sobs. Tucker was right beside her, his arm strong and tight around her shoulders, his face close to hers as she wailed.

"Are you okay, are you okay?" Valerie asked repeatedly, rushing to Sam's side. The camera shook again, at first showing nothing but the texture of the roof, then Sam's scraped and bloodied knees, and then Sam's face, buried in her hands. "Sam!"

Sam gazed up at Valerie, her face red and puffy with tears. In her hands, which were stained red with her own blood, sat a mangled black necklace. Her trembling fingers closed on the jewellery as her face bent with tears. The screen went black.

"I still don't know what was so special about that necklace. I can't get her to talk about it." Valerie muttered, tossing the remote to the side.

"I gave it to her." Danny's voice sounded strange, hollow, after seeing the video. "It was a gift for her fifteenth birthday. She never took it off."

Valerie was silent. She placed a single consoling hand on his arm. They sat very still for a moment, Danny still processing everything he had seen. It did not seem real. He wondered where he had been at that moment. He wondered if he had been flying directly over them when that happened.

"She has scars on her neck, now." Valerie said gently. "She doesn't try to cover them up. They're her battle scars, and she wears them proudly. And that was when Tucker started being particularly protective of her. He won't let anyone touch her. That's part of the reason why Lars left."

"Can you explain Lars to me?"

"It's a long story. Too long to start right now. Besides, I figured you would rather see Tucker and Sam now than listen to me explain why Lars is a douche."

His heart leapt into his throat and expanded, cutting his speech off. He simply nodded, knowing his eyes were wide enough to rival an excited cartoon character. Valerie chuckled, stood, and stretched her back.

"Alright, then, midnight. Let's go."

* * *

**Ack! Last final of the semester. Wish me luck! (:**

**Stay tuned!**

**- Tori**


	7. Chapter Six

**I didn't forget about this, if y'all were wondering where I've been. Lol. Things got insanely busy at work, family was coming and going, and my laptop graciously decided to crash right in the middle of it all. It was fantastic.**

**But I'm here again and I'm updating, so yay (:**

**For those of you who've sent me PMs that I haven't responded to yet, I'll probably get back with you guys in the morning. I'm exhausted right now.**

**Anyways, hope everyone had a wonderful holiday (: I know I did (:**

**Um...hm. I don't think I'm forgetting anything.**

**This is chapter six! I don't own Danny Phantom.**

**Enjoy (:**

* * *

**Wide Awake**

**Chapter Six**

**December 26, 2012**

* * *

The walk back to the stadium was excruciatingly long. Danny was practically bursting at the seams with anticipation as he tripped and stumbled after Valerie. Valerie threw continuous glances over her shoulder at him, each look growing more and more annoyed. Danny did not care. He was beyond ecstatic at the chance to see Sam and Tucker again.

But mostly Sam.

"They're still probably cooling down from the game." Valerie muttered as they approached the stadium. The lights were still on, though the vast majority of the crowd was no where to be seen. Only a few stayed behind, cleaning the trash up and chatting quietly. "Hey, Marcy, Sam and Tuck still in there?"

"I haven't seen them." Marcy, a short, wiry-haired girl sighed as she straightened. She eyed Danny curiously, but did not say anything to him. "I'm pretty sure they're still in there."

"'Kay." Valerie waved and ushered Danny on. They passed through the gates of the stadium, turning to the right this time and heading down a long hallway with tall ceilings. "Locker rooms are down this way. And...listen," Valerie threw her arm out to stop Danny, turning to face him with a serious expression on her face. "Please, let me talk to them first, okay? They're...I mean, they're gonna freak out either way. But, seriously, I can cushion it a little bit if you let me go first. Okay?"

"Okay." Danny nodded firmly. He moved to take another step, but found that Valerie was still blocking his path.

"And when you go in there, please, let me do the talking. Don't say a word unless I give you the signal. Got it?"

"This is ridicu-"

"Got it?"

"What's the signal?"

"You'll know it when you see it. Got it?"

"Yes, okay, fine. Got it. Can we _go_ now?" He tried desperately to keep the whine out of his voice, with no success.

Valerie eyed him suspiciously for a moment longer, before rolling her eyes and turning back in the direction they were heading before. Danny stayed close to her heels, glancing to either side nervously as if he believed Tucker and Sam would jump out and attack him at any moment. He could feel his heart thundering in his chest and for a moment he wrestled with the urge to scream.

"Here." Valerie pointed to a rather nondescript door, scuffed toward the bottom from shoes kicking at it repeatedly. He could easily picture Sam kicking the door open and releasing a familiar and deeply missed strangled growl of exhaustion. "Just...do me a favor?" She asked as she stepped toward the door.

"What?"

"Stay out here. Just for a minute. Please."

They stared at each other, Valerie's hand tight around the doorknob, Danny's eyes practically bulging out of his head in disbelief at her request. He could hear them, just beyond the door, their voices soft murmurs, tempting him and drawing him in. Valerie's face hardened in warning.

"Fine! Hurry up, though!" Danny muttered. Valerie smiled.

"Two minutes." She promised him. She knocked twice, light and delicate.

"Come in." Tucker called from inside. Danny bit his lip to hold in his groan.

Valerie opened the door a crack and slipped inside. Danny caught a glimpse of a room painted red, brightly lit, before the door snapped shut. He felt goosebumps racing down his skin, the hairs on his arm and neck standing straight at attention, and he began to pace. He could hear Valerie speaking, but her voice was far too faint for him to understand. Tucker murmured something, which prompted Valerie to began a speech that lasted precisely forty-seven seconds. It was quiet for a moment, and then Danny heard the most wonderful thing he had heard in over a year: the softest, faintest sound of Sam's voice.

He practically dove into the door. It was all he could do to redirect his landing point to the wall beside the door. He remained very still, flattened against the wall, willing himself not to phase through. He wanted to wait, he wanted to do this right, and he trusted Valerie to know what would be the right things to do and say in this situation. She knew the postapocalyptic Tucker and Sam better than he did, anyways.

But he would always know the pre-apocalyptic Tucker and Sam better than her. He would know the real versions of his best friends better than anyone in the entire world. This thought made him smile, if only just a little.

He pushed away from the wall hastily when he heard footsteps approaching the other side of the door. He stood in the center of the hallway, took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and stared directly at the door. His heart was practically beating directly out of his chest.

"Now...what I'm about to show you guys...is gonna shock you," He heard Valerie say.

"Yeah, right. Enough with the drama, let's just do this." Tucker said.

The door swung open.

For a moment, Tucker was completely rigid in shock. He was practically unrecognizable now that Danny was close enough to see him. His face was much older, darker and far more lined beneath his horn-rimmed glasses. Danny spotted the smallest of cracks at the bottom of one of the lenses, small enough to be effectively ignored. He was still in his all-black zombie-hunting uniform, though it looked as if he was in what would be the undergarments. His long-sleeved shirt was wrinkled, the sleeves riding up enough to reveal several small scars on the skin of his forearms. His pants were tight against his legs, accentuating every toned muscle in the boy's body. For a wild moment, Danny wondered which was a better work out, ghost hunting or zombie hunting?

And then the moment passed and Tucker was reeling backwards, one hand flying over his mouth while the other trembled violently and pointed at Danny. Valerie appeared on the edge of the door frame, her eyes wide. She motioned for Danny to back up, which he did immediately. He flattened himself against the far wall, pressing his palms into the cool surface. He gulped.

"What? What is it?" Sam suddenly bounded into his view, and in that moment everything else disappeared. He forgot Tucker was there, practically going into cardiac arrest. He forgot Valerie was holding her hand up in caution. He forgot he was in Paulina's old soccer stadium, on her parents' ranch, in Texas, orphaned and alone. In that moment, he was Danny, and she was Sam, and they were being reunited after a year of agonizing separation.

She was radiant. Her hair, still done up in a loose braid from the game, draped over one shoulder and barely tickled the top of her left breast. Her violet eyes were wide, her lips parted as she froze at the sight of him. Her skin was tan, stretched tight over her bones in the areas he could see. She wore something similar to Tucker, though her shirt appeared to have been hacked off at her midriff. She was barefoot, he realized.

He took a single step forward, just one small, hesitant step, and suddenly the door slammed closed. He almost stumbled, his muscles jerking back as he recoiled from the unpleasant sound of the door crashing shut.

Though, once his ears cleared, he was wishing for that sound.

Tucker was screaming. He was shouting, cursing at Valerie, demanding to know what the hell her problem was, bringing some doppelgänger in to tease them. But it was the sounds he heard between Tucker's angry threats that made his heart ache.

Sam was crying. Not wailing, as she had done in the video, but she was sobbing. She was releasing choked sobs, her voice breaking as she attempted to calm herself. Tucker suddenly went silent, followed by a scuffling noise, and then Sam's sobs were substantially muffled.

"...not a doppelgänger, that's really him! I found him downtown, he saved my life!" Valerie swore.

"The _hell_ would he be doing here? Huh? He had no idea Paulina's folks had a place out here, why the hell would he be here? Shhh, Sam," Tucker's voice suddenly softened considerably. Danny listened intently. "Shh, it's okay. It's okay. I'm here. It's all gonna be okay."

"It's him, I swear to God."

"Shut the hell up, Valerie." Tucker snarled. "It's not him." His voice was soft again, and Danny realized he was murmuring to Sam. "It's just our imagination. Valerie's been drinking again, we both know she has a problem." There was silence for a moment, and Danny wondered if they were exchanging dirty looks. "It's okay. Shhh." Tucker murmured, his voice slightly muffled. Danny wondered if his face was buried in Sam's hair.

There was silence again. Danny waited, holding his breath, before Valerie finally spoke again.

"Okay, you're right. It's not him. His name is...um...Seth. I found him downtown. He was scared and alone, so I brought him back here. He saw you guys playing in the Bowl and he really wanted to meet y'all. Okay? I'm sorry I tried to tell you it was...you know who. I just...I thought that if you guys thought it was...him...you guys would be...I dunno, happy, I guess. I'm sorry. It was stupid, I realize that now. I just wasn't thinking at the time, but don't take that out on him. Please, will you give Seth a chance?"

Danny squeezed his eyes shut, praying that Tucker would agree. The silence stretched on in one endless moment, before someone finally spoke again.

"Can I see him again?" Sam's voice was small, almost timid. Danny got the feeling that it was incredibly out of character for zombie-slaying Sam to sound so frail. It was the exact opposite from the pre-Event Sam. He was snapped out of these thoughts, however, when the door eased open.

They were both there, just beyond the door. Sam's face was red and puffy with tears, looking as if she had it buried in Tucker's shoulder just moments before. She was eyeing curiously, chewing her bottom lip. He stayed perfectly still, except for brushing his hair out of his face when it fell down and blocked his vision. Her eyes were bright with curiosity, caution brewing just beneath the surface. He swallowed. Tucker was glowering at him over Sam's head, arms wound tightly and protectively around Sam's thin figure, though Danny got the feeling the vast majority of that anger was directed at Valerie.

"Seth?" He asked, his voice hard and unyielding. Danny tried to remind himself that Tucker was only trying to protect Sam. He tried to tell himself that Tucker was protecting her for him, keeping her safe because he knew Danny would want him to.

It did not help.

"Y-yeah?" He squeaked.

"Where are you from?"

"Um...uh...Wisconsin." He said dumbly. Something flickered in his forest green eyes. He exchanged a look with Sam.

"Did you know a Vlad Masters?"

"N-no...?"

"Oh. Well, good. 'Cause he's dead as a friggin' doornail. I was just wondering." He smirked. The door suddenly opened a bit wider, revealing an incredibly wary Valerie eyeing the two. "Where in Wisconsin?"

"North." He mumbled, glancing nervously at Valerie. She shot him an almost imperceptible look of approval.

"Any particular _city_?" Tucker asked, his voice bordering on annoyance.

"Um...um...I...uh..."

"Thought so. Okay, Seth, nice to meet you. Bye."

He was given one last chance to see their faces, Sam's completely unreadable, Tuckers alive with malice, before the door snapped shut and he was left alone in the shadows of the hallway, staring in disbelief at the door.

"Tucker!" Valerie's voice rang in disapproval.

"I don't know who the hell you think you are, bringing that _dipshit_ in and saying that he's you-know-who. You've got _some nerve_, woman. I swear to God, I could kill you right now! What the hell?"

"He's scared and alone and he needed shelter and I thought he looked so much like you-know-who that I...I dunno..."

They were very quiet for a moment. Danny tensed, wondering if he should try knocking and offering some explanation, until the door suddenly opened a fraction of an inch. He immediately threw his body weight back against the wall, his eyes wide and wary.

The door eased open a bit more, revealing Sam's face in the crack. Her eyes were on the ground, and her breathing was shallow. She glanced up at him. He gave her a small, tentative smile.

She pulled the door open and slipped out into the hall. The door closed behind her without another word from Tucker or Valerie. Distantly, he could hear them talking again once the door was shut, but he was far too focused on Sam to process what the other two were talking about.

He kept his back against the far wall, and Sam kept hers flush against the door to their dressing room. They were staring at each other, Danny's mouth gaping stupidly as he tried to think of something to say.

She spoke first. She stepped toward him, extended her hand shyly, and murmured "Sam."

He stared at her outstretched hand, his brain refusing to cooperate with his limbs. Finally, after a painfully long pause, he hastily reached forward. She jumped a little at the sudden movement, but did not recoil from him.

"Seth." He said with as much confidence as he could muster.

Their fingers brushed as they connected in a handshake.

And in that moment, every nerve in his body came to life. He suddenly felt more alive and more aware than he ever had before, even before The Event. He gasped in spite of his efforts to stay calm, which did not go unnoticed by Sam.

She was staring at him, watching him closely, examining his face. Their handshake lasted far longer than the average handshake, and Danny felt the sudden sensation of being examined under a microscope.

And just when he thought she might hit him, the most incredible thing he had experienced in a while happened.

Her eyes clouded over, her mouth curled up on one side in a small half-smile, and she whispered, "It's really nice to meet you, _Seth_."

* * *

**OH NO.**

**Thanks for reading! (:**

**- Tori**


	8. Chapter Seven

**Alright, alright, I'm back. This chapter is pretty short, sorry about that, but it functions for its' purpose.**

**(:**

**Anyways, hope you guys enjoy this. Sorry about the wait for this one, guys.**

**Aaaaaand that's all I got.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Wide ****Awake**

**Chapter Seven**

**January 16, 2013**

* * *

"I've honestly never seen him that pissed before." Valerie growled, swinging violently at a low-hanging branch as she stomped back toward the house. Danny did not respond, choosing to keep his eyes on the ground and his thoughts on Sam. "I mean, seriously, I thought he was gonna try to hit me for a minute."

"Hm." Danny grunted. _She put a_ lot_ of emphasis on Seth._

"I don't have a drinking problem." Valerie tossed over her shoulder off-handedly. Danny glanced up at her, chewing the inside of his cheek. "I mean I drink every now and then, but...I don't have a problem." She said it more to herself than to him.

Again, he chose to remain silent. _Did she recognize me? It kind of seemed like she recognized me..._

_But then why wouldn't she say anything?_

"I'm sorry...about all of that..." Valerie murmured. She had slowed considerably, her head down. Danny slowed as well, eyeing Valerie's back curiously. "I thought they could handle it if...y'know...if I just told them who you are they would be able to handle it. I didn't think they were gonna respond that badly...I didn't even consider them not believing it. I'm sorry if I overstepped, I just did the first thing I thought of...I'm not even sure where the name Seth came from -"

"It's okay, Val," Danny said soothingly. Her relief was obvious in her face. "It's fine. I would have done the same thing. I even kind of like the name Seth. It's fine. But, um...do you think they'll ever come around to the idea that I'm me?"

"Um..." She paused at the edge of the forest, pursing her lips and gazing up at the branches. "Maybe. I don't really know, honestly."

He nodded, trying to swallow the sudden swell of disappointment washing through his heart. "But probably," Valerie said, her eyes shining in pity. "They'll...they'll come around eventually..."

"You don't have to lie to make me feel better," Danny muttered, staring at his feet.

Her face creased in a frown, but she dropped it. "Let's head back to the house, I can answer more of your questions there. Sound good?"

He nodded, still chewing the inside of his cheek. Valerie turned and continued leading him through the woods.

She held her bedroom doors open for him when they were back in the house, closing and locking them once they were both inside. Danny perched on the edge of her bed, watching her pull the tape out of her VCR and tucking it carefully into its sleeve. She tucked it into the drawer below the television before straightening. "Okay. Any question. Go."

He was quiet for a moment, desperately trying to decide which question to ask first. "Who was that guy in the city? Lance or whatev-"

"Lars." Valerie corrected.

"Fine. Lars. Who was he?"

"He used to run with us. He worked at the mechanics shop my dad used back in Amity. He was always a little creepy, but my dad always said that I was just overreacting to it. That he was just being polite, or whatever.

"Well, back when the outbreak was first starting, Lars started talking about running away with me. Like, seriously talking about it. He said that he could just steal an SUV one night and we could run away, drive all the way to Mexico, where he thought the disease hadn't reached. He tried one night, but he got caught. It was ridiculous. But the day of the outbreak, that afternoon, he said he was gonna find me. And that night, he did. After we...um...after we found your house, he showed up. Literally right after. We hadn't even started to head back to the bunker we were hiding in. Sam was...um...anyways-"

"Sam was what?" Danny breathed.

Valerie gave him an expressionless glance. "She was still on the ground. She collapsed when she realized...and Tucker was still trying to get her to stand when Lars came over. It was like I was invisible, the moment he saw Sam he was all over her."

Jealousy exploded in his chest. "Normally, she would have punched him in the groin and walked away. But she was devastated by the news. So she just...she let him pick her up and carry her back to the bunker. On my hover board. It was weird.

"Tucker started getting really pissed off with him, because he wouldn't leave Sam alone. At first, it just seemed like he was trying to comfort her, which we were fine with, but then even Sam was getting irritated with him. By then, we were already here on the ranch. Lars kept acting really inappropriately toward her, and it kept escalating, until finally one night it just blew up in all of our faces.

"Lars snuck into Tucker and Sam's room in the middle of the night and tried to have sex with Sam. And by have sex with I mean rape. Tucker woke up and started beating the shit out of Lars, which woke Sam up. As soon as she realized what was happening she started beating the shit out of Lars, too. I had to go in and break it up. We had a hearing, the entire group was there, and it was a unanimous vote to kick him out. We thought for sure he would be killed in less than a day. But, as you saw out there, that didn't exactly work." She brought her hand up to her face and pinched the bridge of her nose. "We have no idea how he's still alive. I mean, he should be dead by now. It just...it doesn't make sense."

"I could go kill him right now." Danny growled, feeling the familiar swell of aggravated ghostly energy expanding in his chest, spurring him into action. "I could beat his sorry ass and leave him for the damn zombies."

"That would accomplish nothing at this point. He's off our land. He's not our problem anymore." Valerie said firmly. "Besides, do you really want to waste time beating the hell out of him when you could be asking more questions?"

"Who was he talking about when he said 'tell midnight I'm waiting for her?'"

"Who do you think?"

"Well you called me midnight back in the city, I didn't -"

"It's because of your hair. It's our nickname for people with dark hair. I don't remember everyone's names, so I have general nicknames for people. Midnight is dark hair. You and Sam have black hair."

"Where did that name even come from?"

"I don't know! Where do words in general come from? They just happen. Next question."

Danny sighed, trying to ignore her aggravated glare. "Did...is there...I mean, um...is Sam...like...is she _involved_ with...anyone?"

"Um...no. Not that I know of."

"Has she been since that night?"

"No."

A small sense of relief nearly drowned in the suffocating anger and jealousy he felt toward Lars. He stared down at his knees and nodded, breathing deeply in a vain attempt to calm himself down. "Good," He murmured.

"Did you have any other questions?" Valerie asked gently.

"Where do I sleep tonight?"

"I'll set up a cot outside with the rest of the group. Is that okay?"

After a split second hesitation, he nodded.

The cots were set up in rows just a few feet to the left of the house. His cot was at the very end of the last row, closest to the house. His neighbor to his right seemed to be completely absorbed in the girl on the cot on his other side, so Danny was left to stare up at the stars and to try and ignore the quiet murmurs.

After several hours of insomnia, Danny officially gave up on sleeping. He swung his legs over the side of the cot and stretched his back, before yawning and standing. He glanced over his shoulder at the rows of sleeping figures. He sighed and trudged away. The ground was uneven beneath his feet, causing him to trip and stumble several times in the darkness. Finally he flashed to Phantom and just floated.

He drifted to the other side of the house, nibbling on his lower lip and gazing up at the single tree planted near the house. He squinted up at the branches.

It was an apple tree.

Without thinking much about it, he floated up to the upper branches and plucked an apple from the branch. He drifted away from the tree, about three feet off the ground, and bit into the apple. Exhaustion was starting to set in, his muscles loosening and stretching and rippling beneath his skin. His eyelids felt heavy, and a yawn made his jaw muscles itch and tingle.

But just as he was about to drop the apple and drift back toward the cots, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. The unmistakable feeling of being watched suddenly wiped all else from his mind. He glanced to his right, peering cautiously around, trying to pinpoint the eyes watching him from the shadows. His breathing slowly evened out as the feeling suddenly vanished.

He took one last bite of the apple, dropped it to the ground, and drifted back toward the cots.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**- Tori**


	9. Chapter Eight

**School run write book run read work school eat run sleep write book homework run school homework run breathe...write the next chapter for Wide Awake.**

**Ah, at last. Something I can see results for immediately.**

**I've been a little busy lately.**

**I'm going to try to update more often, but I'm not making any guarantees, here. I'm hoping for the best, but I'm sort of struggling to keep my head above water at this point.**

**I hope you guys understand.**

**Anyways, here's the next chapter. Thanks for sticking with it this far, and I hope you continue to do so until it's finished.**

**Because it WILL be finished. I can guarantee that.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

**Wide Awake**

**Chapter Eight**

**February 5, 2013**

* * *

The next morning, Danny woke up to Valerie just inches from his face. "_Wake up_." She hissed. The bits of sky he could see around her wild mane were still dark.

"Wha-?" He groaned in his still-half-asleep state.

"We need to get a game plan together, _get up_." She said with a bit more force. And suddenly, awareness of where he was and who he was with came flooding back and all traces of sleep vanished from his body. He sat up as quickly as a whip, nearly smacking his head into Valerie's in his sudden movement. She muttered a few curse words at him, but quickly turned on her heel and started off in the opposite direction of the house. Danny was on her heels almost instantly.

"What do you mean, a game plan?" He asked as they plowed along, his voice a bit louder with the distance they had between themselves and the rest of the group.

"You're gonna be staying with us. Right?" Valerie asked, tossing a curious glance over her shoulder.

"I was planning on it," Danny said dryly.

Valerie nodded once, apparently not in the mood for jokes. "We told Tucker and Sam that your name is Seth. Eventually, and we're gonna ease them into this gently, since throwing it in their faces didn't go so well for either of us, they're gonna figure out who you really are. Until then, we need everyone else in the camp to believe that your name is Seth and that you come from Wisconsin. Now, it's not often we take on a new member. Theo and Kee were the last two we brought into the group, and that was six months ago when we were passing through Texarkana. It's a city," Valerie shook her head at Danny's incredulous look. "Now, Seth." She stopped short suddenly, whirling around to face him. They were on the edge of the forest, fifty yards out from where the rest of the group was still sleeping. The sky was turning a strange, muddy grey color. "What's your last name?"

"Um..."

"Too slow. Danny, what's your last name?"

"Fenton."

"Seth, what's your last name?"

"Alexander."

Valerie raised a single eyebrow. "Nice. Alright, Seth Alexander, where do you come from?"

"Wisconsin."

"Really? Me too! What city?"

"Um..."

"Too slow. Danny, what city -?"

"Amity Park, I don't know any cities in Wisconsin! I wasn't good at geometry!"

"It's not...I think you mean...geography. It's geography. Geometry is math, the shapes and stuff, remember? You're...wow. Okay. Just say you're from Milwaukee. Okay?"

"Is that in Wisconsin?"

"That's the capital of Wisconsin. Were you dropped on your _head_ as a child?" She was pinching the bridge of her nose, but her shoulders were shaking as if she was suppressing a laugh. "Say you're from Milwaukee and leave it at that. If anyone starts pressing, tell them you really hated it there and you'd rather not talk about it. Okay?"

"Okay."

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"When's your birthday?"

"April nineteenth."

Her eyes narrowed. "Really?"

"...okay, that's Danny's birthday."

"August fourth. Seth's birthday is August fourth."

They went on like that for another ten minutes, before Danny created an entire back story for Seth. He would tell people he came from a large family, three brothers and four sisters. He was the third one born, the second son of the family. By the time they were picking their way back toward the rest of the cots, the sky was considerably lighter, and about a third of the group was awake and stretching. A few of them had already caught sight of Valerie and Danny heading back toward them, eyeing the couple curiously. Danny watched a few of them lean into each other and murmur to each other, and suddenly he felt very self-conscious. He could not even remember the last time he had a shower.

"Guys," Valerie called when they were within earshot. They straightened immediately, all eyes bright and alert and trained on Valerie's face. She paused, allowing the people who were still sleeping to wake up, and when at last they were all semi-awake and appeared to be paying attention, she spoke again. "Some of you may have noticed that we have a new face here with us. He's gonna be permanent, okay? His name is Seth. I want you guys to make him feel welcome. That means no inquisitions. Got it?"

There was a general murmur of agreement from the crowd, all of whom were now eyeing Danny with open curiosity. Valerie clapped, bringing their attention back to herself. "Alright. Today's gonna go on as usual. I want everyone on their chores, okay? Done by sundown. As usual. Let's go." She stood for a moment, watching the group stretch and grumble as they moved out toward the ranch, before turning to Danny. "I'm not going to ask you to join them today, since it's technically still your first day with us, so you'll be with me all day today."

"What was all that training for, then?" Danny asked in exasperation as they made their way back toward the main house.

"You're not gonna stay with me forever! Just for today. Eventually they'll ask those questions, and it's important for you to know the answers. Understand?"

Danny rolled his eyes, but held his tongue. They were quiet for a moment. "What are we gonna be doing all day today?" He asked, suddenly feeling rather nervous.

"Nothing terrible. Mostly sitting inside and mapping out the next raid. We have to focus on areas that were densely populated, away from Lars. We've hit most of the surrounding areas, so now we've resorted to bussing the team out to neighboring communities and getting food from there."

"Bussing?" Danny asked incredulously.

"Yeah. We found an old school bus a while back, and that's what we use to move the group to and fro. Of course, since we landed here, we don't need it for everyone anymore. The recon team uses it for exactly what I just described to you." He could tell she was resisting a powerful urge to be condescending toward him, and he appreciated her patience, regardless of how forced it was. "I usually plan it out ahead of time, so that we'll have a game plan for when we head out that night."

"They're going out tonight?"

"We're going out tonight," Valerie corrected. "You're coming too. You can stay on the bus, if you want, but I have a feeling you're going to want to be there. Am I right?" Danny nodded, holding the front door of the house open for Valerie, who nodded graciously and slipped past him. "I figured. Tucker and Sam go too, they're scary good at it. Day-to-day chores, not so much, but the whole fighting and gathering food and supplies and stuff...they're _really_ good at it."

"Have you seen them at all today?" Danny asked, trodding quietly through the living room and into the dining room.

"Well Tucker and I...uh..._talked_ last night, and we're okay again. Sam didn't seem particularly upset at all when I got back in, but then again I was so focused on dodging Tucker's punches that I can't be sure. She didn't come tell me that she was mad, anyways."

"But _would_ she come tell you?"

"Yes. We have a 100% no-bullshit policy around here. We can't afford to get pissed at each other, and we _definitely_ can't afford to hold grudges. Things are different now. No one really fights anymore, not with the threat of zombies on our heads. It's just impractical. We hash things out, right there on the spot. It works a lot better than being idiots."

"I can imagine." Danny murmured. He had his back toward Valerie's bedroom door, facing the other, older door. Small, muffled sounds were just starting to reach him through the old, cracked wood, sounds similar to those of a waking young woman. Valerie, meanwhile, was rummaging through an old armoire shoved against the wall between the second bedroom door and the doorway to the kitchen. She pulled several tattered, wrinkled papers from the depths of the upper right-hand drawer, waving them in triumph as she pulled out a red Sharpie. She slapped them down on the table and took the seat at the head of the table, on Danny's left.

"Okay," She sighed, drawing herself closer to the table and seizing one of the papers, which Danny could now see were all maps. "Last week we hit the west end of Bosque county, where all the gas stations and grocery stores are. That's here." She pointed to an area that had been circled and crossed out. "But I know there were a shit-ton of hoity-toity Dallas folks who thought they were cowboys on the east end, here, who probably had their places stocked with food and ammunition, which is exactly what we need. We could hit a few of those ranches and -"

The sound of the second bedroom door creaking open interrupted her sentence. They both looked up to see Sam rubbing her eyes groggily in the doorway, mid-yawn. Danny felt his heart quite literally leap into his throat, cutting off his breathing. She was wearing one of his old shirts, which was so large on her tiny frame it draped down to her mid-thigh. Her jaw snapped shut rather quickly, her lips pulled into a tired grin as she stepped further into the dining room. "You guys planning?" She asked, her voice still thick with sleep.

"Yeah," Valerie gestured toward the empty seat directly across from Danny. Sam met his gaze and for a moment the earth stood still again as they stared at each other, before the faintest blush graced her cheeks, her eyes dropped to the table, and she dropped into her seat. "I was just saying that we should hit the ranches on the east end of Bosque county, since all those rich Dallas folks who wanted to be the living reenactment of that stupid television show, Dallas, lived. Their places are probably ridiculously stocked."

Sam was shaking her head slowly, her eyes full of apprehension. "Tuck and I think there's a nest over there. We didn't get close enough to investigate, because there were literally hundreds of them and if they caught our scent we would have been dead in seconds, but last time we were out there, they all seemed to be moving toward the east end. It's too risky and the possible reward is too small."

"What are we supposed to do, then? The next county that we haven't hit is ten miles away through zackland and the bus would never make it through there in one piece."

"Maybe it's time we consider moving," Sam said gently.

Valerie let the Sharpie fall from her fingers with a clatter. "_Moving_?" She repeated, her mouth turned in a snarl. "And where do you suggest we go?"

"They can't climb, maybe we could find a ski resort in the mountains in Colorado or something!" Sam said earnestly. "Who knows, maybe there are other survivors there!"

"We need to operate as if we are the last survivors, Sam. We've talked about this a million times. We need to assume that every other human being in the entire world has been reduced to a rotting, flesh-eating monster, and that _we_ are the last hope for humanity. Moving this entire operation hundreds of miles into the mountains just for the _possibility_ of there being other survivors there is stupid. What if the zacks there have learned how to climb? Hm?" Sam turned her gaze to the table, her defeat evident in her slumped shoulders. "And you were just talking about the risk being too high for a reward that isn't even guaranteed. It's too risky. We can't move everyone out there without knowing _for sure_ that it would be worth it."

The silence that followed was thick. Danny was afraid to breathe. He glanced between the two women nervously, Valerie looking slightly agitated and Sam looking utterly defeated. He could tell she had been working on that proposal for a while now, and that the conversation had not gone at all like she originally planned. He felt an urge to comfort her, before realizing that he had no idea how.

The silence was broken by a great, thundering crash from somewhere outside. Each head snapped toward the kitchen, where Danny was just able to see through the back door. A few people seemed to be running toward the house, shouting at whatever emergency just unravelled.

"I'll be right back," Valerie muttered as she pushed back from the table and skirted around the table. Before Danny could even blink, the backdoor was slamming shut and Valerie's muffled shouts could be heard in the distance.

Suddenly, he was very aware that he was alone with Sam.

She was watching him closely, her face a mask of some undefinable emotion. He wanted to squirm under her gaze, but he forced himself to remain still and endure her scrutiny. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she spoke.

"You said your name was Seth, right?" She asked quietly. He nodded. "Seth...?"

"Alexander." He said quickly. She nibbled her lower lip.

"Seth Alexander." She said softly. Danny swallowed. "I'm sorry about what happened last night, it's just...you look a _lot_ like someone Tucker and I lost the night the plague hit our hometown."

"It's okay," Danny practically choked on the desire to tell her the truth. "I understand. It happens."

She smiled. "You even kind of sound like him," She said softly, her eyes sliding out of focus. "Your voice is a little deeper than I remember his being, but...it's pretty much the same."

Danny remained perfectly still, internally battling with himself as he watched her daydream. He wondered if she did this every time something reminded her of him, or if anything reminded her of him anymore. "Things would be a lot different around here if he was still around, that's for sure," She said, apparently snapping out of her reverie.

"Wh-what makes you say that?" He asked carefully.

She glanced up at him, that undefinable emotion flashing in her eyes again. "He was just...he was _very_ protective. He had a hero complex, but he was really good at...ah..._helping_ people, I guess you could say. He was kind of like the town's superhero," A little knowing smile turned the corners of her mouth up. "Everyone loved him, and he loved everyone."

"He sounds like a good guy," He said, unsure of what to do with himself.

Her eyes snapped up. "'_Good guy_?'" She said incredulously. "No. He was a _great_ guy. He was the best guy I knew. Best guy I've ever known, to date. If he had been around when Lars was here...Lars would be dead right now, that's for sure."

He felt a ripple of fury wash through him as that story came flooding back to his memories, but he pushed them away, allowing the ridiculous sense of pride over Sam's compliments drown it out. She was staring at the table again, shaking her head slowly, obviously spaced out again. "I miss him so much," she murmured.

"I'm so sorry for your loss," Danny said gently. He wished he was brave enough to reach across the table to touch her shoulder consolingly, but he kept his hands firmly clasped together beneath his side of the table. She was looking at him again, her mouth open and her eyes lit with a question, when Valerie's bedroom door suddenly swung open. Danny could feel the rush of air push his hair aside as it opened, and just as he turned to find Tucker stretching in the doorway, Tucker's eyes landed on the table where Danny and Sam were alone.

Immediately, Tucker's pupils dilated and his nostrils flared. His jaw was clenched, a muscle somewhere in his cheek jumping spastically, as a wave of righteous anger washed through him. Danny could feel himself shrinking in his seat.

"Tucker," Sam's voice was sharp, ringing in warning.

Tucker seemed to physically relax, at least partially, though his eyes were still ablaze and trained on Danny. "Don't." Sam said.

"I'm not doing anything." Tucker said defiantly. "I'm just looking at the new kid."

Danny turned back in his seat, keeping his eyes trained on the table. He felt Tucker yank the chair to his right out from the table, and felt a sudden rise in heat as he sat down beside him. "What's your name again?"

"Seth Alexander."

"And where are you from?"

"Wisconsin."

"City?"

"Milwaukee." Danny swallowed.

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"When's your birthday?"

"August fourth."

"What year?"

"Tucker!" Sam interrupted. Danny glanced up to see her staring at Tucker, her eyes shining in outrage. "Leave him alone!"

"What, he your new boyfriend?" Tucker sneered. "Yeah, good idea, date the first new male that shows up, the last one went real well for you and the rest of the crew."

"My relationship with Lars was none of your business." Sam snapped. "You shut the hell up about stuff you don't know about."

Tucker's mouth was open for a retort when the back door banged open and Valerie suddenly appeared in the kitchen doorway. "Guys, we need some help, Simon blew a tire out on one of the Gators while hauling firewood and it crashed into the windmill. Seth, just hang out here for a minute, I'll be right back in. Tuck, Sam?"

Tucker and Sam stood without another word and exited the room, leaving Danny alone, still reeling over their fight.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Keep an eye on it.**

**- Tori**


	10. Chapter Nine

**So here's chapter nine, for those of you who have been ever-so-patiently waiting for me to get my act together.**

**I won't bore you with an explination of where I've been in this story, because you guys probably don't particularly care about that, but I plan to upload a one-shot here pretty soon with the explination. Because there is one.**

**Promise.**

**Okay, so, I don't own Danny Phantom or anything else you may recognize. Thank you for sticking with this story, I promise, there's more to come.**

**Awww yissssss. Moar writies.**

* * *

**Wide Awake**

**Chapter Nine**

**March 26, 2013**

* * *

"I think Sam knows who I really am," Danny murmured to Valerie. They were standing at the bus, which was parked on the opposite side of the stadium from where the house sat, loading various weapons and ammunition into the back for later use. Valerie paused, the three rifles in her arms clanging together. "I know what you're gonna say, but...I don't know, we were talking a little while ago and it seemed like she kind of knew who -"

"Danny," She said softly. He fell silent immediately, dropping his gaze to his feet. "Look, I know you want her to know. I know you want both of them to know. And trust me, eventually, they'll figure it out. But you've only been here, what...eighteen hours? They don't know yet, they haven't been around you long enough to recognize you yet. It's been a year since they've seen you, and they've been thinking that you're dead for this entire time. Remember the way you felt when you realized they were still alive?"

"Yeah, I do. I felt like I wanted to see them both more than I wanted air to breathe." Danny snapped. "I get it, okay? I get the whole being gentle thing and easing them into it thing but...Jesus Christ, Val, why can't I just go ghost in front of them and be done with it?"

Her gaze was one of pity. "If it was that easy, I would have told you to do that last night. Danny, Tucker and Sam are animals right now. They are. We all are. We've been fighting for our lives for so long now that we don't remember how to act in any other situation. I told you when we first found each other, Tucker and Sam are in the mindset that the only thing they have to lose is each other. The only significant thing in their lives right now is each other. And they will fight to the death to protect each other. I think," she said, slinging the rifles into the back of the bus and turning to lean against it, "on some level, they do know already. They know it's you. And they know that you want to help them protect each other. I think that's the reason why they're being so flighty with you, especially Tucker."

"What, they don't want my help? They don't want my protection?"

"That's not what I said. There's something you should know about Tucker, though. He told me, a few months ago, that he would die before he let anything happen to Sam. D'you know why?" Danny shook his head. "He said, and I quote: 'I have to keep her safe for Danny. Years ago I promised him that if anything ever happened to him that made him not be around anymore, I would protect Sam. I would keep her safe.'" Danny felt heat rising in his face and tears pricking at his eyes. He had completely forgotten about that conversation, "Tucker's being territorial and protective of Sam for you. He loves her, believe me, but if you guys had found each other that night, you can believe that Tucker wouldn't be nearly as aggressive about her. About anything, really."

Danny was quiet, so she knelt down and began gathering weapons again. "He's doing this as homage to you." she grunted, lifting a fifty-pound case of ammunition by herself. "Do you get that?"

"Yeah," Danny breathed. "I just wish he would let me in, is all."

"He's working on it. I know it doesn't seem like it, but he is. I think he'll be a little more civil toward you after tonight, though, since you're coming with us on the raid."

"What makes you think he's gonna chill out with me?" He asked as he hoisted more ammunition into the bus. His muscles were burning, he realized in dismay.

"Anyone who survives a raid with Tucker and Sam is alright in Tucker's book." Valerie said. "Those sons of bitches are crazy on raids."

"Should I bother asking you to explain?" He huffed.

"You'll see for yourself." She said cryptically, slamming the backdoor of the bus shut and grinning mischievously.

They gathered about half an hour before the sun set, on the side of the house where the apple tree stood. The familiar rays of the sun, which for so long had been nothing but heartless reminders of everything he lost, were suddenly warm against his skin again. He watched the sun dip slowly, tuning Valerie out as she rambled on about safety procedures. He turned back toward the group, though, when he felt eyes on the back of his head. He found Sam watching him.

"So is everyone clear on where we'll be, tonight?" Valerie asked, drawing his attention back toward her. There was a small murmur of agreement from the group, but most remained silent. She sighed impatiently. "We're going to the east end of Bosque, where the ranches are. Okay?" This time, everyone nodded and mumbled some consent. "Alright, let's load up and head out."

They began to migrate toward the bus, mostly silent save for a few quiet conversations murmured here and there throughout. Tucker and Sam were several yards ahead of where he was walking, apparently deeply absorbed in their own conversation. He could not tear his eyes away from them.

"I drive the bus, so you'll have to sit by yourself. Is that gonna be okay?" Valerie murmured, drawing his attention back to earth. He nodded, glancing at the ground as they walked. "It won't be too bad. You're gonna be with me, Tucker, and Sam on the raid."

"You don't think Tucker's gonna try to kill me?" Danny asked bitterly.

"I've already talked to him about it. He realizes that this is Seth's first raid, and he promised that he was gonna be nice. Besides, his focus right now is to find food and medicine. He knows we're running low, and I've asked him to replenish. It's mostly gonna be you, me, and Sam. Tuck will be doing his own thing."

Danny nodded, feeling only slightly more reassured. His gaze drifted back to Tucker and Sam. "What if there's a nest over there?" He asked.

Valerie was quiet. He glanced at her, to find her gaze firmly planted ahead. "There isn't." She said.

"But what if -"

"There isn't."

He did not speak again.

When they loaded themselves onto the bus, Danny ended up on the row directly behind the driver's seat. He turned sideways in his seat, so that his back was against the windows, and watched the rest of the bus move and quake. Tucker and Sam were in the furthest row on the opposite side of the bus, still wrapped up in each other. He tried to bite back a swell of jealousy, busying himself by examining the bus instead.

While the outside was rusted and a fading pale yellow, the inside was painted all different shades of vibrant colors, in no particular pattern, giving the bus a deceptively cheerful appearance. Someone (Tucker, he guessed) had installed speakers all throughout the bus, one mounted on every other row, which seemed to connect to some sort of iPod in the back, somewhere near Tucker and Sam, he assumed. He glanced back at the couple.

They were both absorbed in something Danny could not see, that Tucker seemed to be holding. Sam pointed and said something to Tucker, who laughed and nodded. Her grin was blinding.

And suddenly music was blasting from the speakers. Danny leaned his head against the window just as they reached the bottom of the hill on the property, closing his eyes and letting the sounds of the thudding bass soothe him. It had been so long since he last enjoyed any music. This was a blessing.

They stopped once, long enough for some of those staying behind to push the main gate open, and then they were off. Sam seemed to have selected a playlist full of strange electronic classical hybrid music that Danny found strangely relaxing. He opened his eyes once in the trip to east Bosque, when he felt someone watching him again. He glanced to his right to find Sam's amethyst eyes bright and trained on his face. Her face was illuminated for a brief moment in the last light of the sunset, before darkness fell and she turned away.

Valerie parked the bus in the center of a wide field that may have once been part of someone's land. Tucker unplugged the iPod and the music cut off and all attention turned to Valerie, who was now standing at the very front of the bus. "Remember what we talked about. Be safe, keep each other safe, and gather as much as you can carry. Second trips are not prohibited, but they are highly frowned upon. We're leaving in an hour, I suggest you guys be here when that hour expires. We will not wait for you. Let's go."

Danny allowed her to pull him off to one side once they were both off of the bus. They stood, watching the rest of the group split off in different directions, waiting for Tucker and Sam to vacate the bus. They were the last ones off.

The four of them set off wordlessly toward the northeast. He walked slightly ahead of Tucker and Sam, in line with Valerie.

The walk to the ranch in question was quiet. Occasionally Danny caught snippets of murmured conversation from Tucker or Sam, but the wind blistering his face carried their words away before he could really understand them. After about ten minutes, the outline of an abandoned ranch appeared in the distance.

Valerie brought her arm up, catching Danny around his chest and bringing him up short. "Okay, see the shed there to the left of the house?" She asked, turning her head back to Tucker. Tucker sidled up between Valerie and Danny, squinting at the shed, before nodding. "You check that out first, and then there's a barn behind this property that I want you to look at, okay? Me, Sam, and Seth are gonna check the main building out. It's big enough to keep the three of us busy, but if you have trouble, give us a yell."

Tucker nodded again, his gaze hard and fixated on the shed. "Sam, you good to go?"

Sam turned her gaze toward Valerie, and Danny could see apprehension and worry flickering deep in her eyes. But she nodded. "Good. Let's go."

Tucker split off from the group the moment they were inside the fence surrounding the property. Danny watched his retreating figure, before he felt a tug at his sleeve. Valerie was all but dragging him toward the house. "Stay focused," She hissed over her shoulder.

Sam was already on the front porch, her shoulder to the wall, when Danny and Valerie made it to the bottom of the small staircase leading to the front door. A small-caliber pistol was in her right hand, her left gripping the handle of the door.

"Okay, Seth?" Valerie whispered when they were situated on the other side of the door. "Sam's gonna go in first, check the place out, and when she gives us the signal, we're gonna go in after her. That way she can check for any stray zacks or other surprises, and we can watch the main entry point while she works."

Danny nodded, unable to tear his gaze away from Sam's face. She was staring back, her nostrils flared, waiting for Valerie to give her the signal that she could enter. "Go," Valerie whispered.

In the split second it took him to blink, she was gone, vanished into the blackness of the house. He was left to stare at an empty space beside a lightly creaking front door.

The silence that followed was thick, almost too thick for Danny to bear. He could hear his blood rushing through his ears. "I don't like this," He whispered, and it sounded brutishly loud.

"Just relax. This is your first raid, I know it's scary, but trust me. We've done this hundreds of times. We know what we're doing." Valerie was leaning hard against the door frame, her ear cocked toward the inside of the house as she scanned the horizon. "This is routine."

"Sam wasn't acting like this is routine." Danny muttered. "She's kind of freaking out right now."

"No, she's not," Valerie said firmly. She sighed, before lowering her voice significantly. "Her nerves are just a little frayed because we've been seeing more and more of Lars lately. And then you throw in the fact that you, the spitting image of the guy she was in love with before the apocalypse, have mysteriously appeared out of no where...she's just stretched a little thin right now. Don't worry about it, when she gets into raid mode, all of that goes away. Same with Tucker.

He dropped his gaze to the wooden porch beneath his feet, examining the grains and grooves in the planks. They were quiet for a moment more, before a sudden movement at the door drew his attention back.

"We're clear." Sam murmured. Her skin was pale and glistening ever so slightly in the decreasing light, but her eyes were clear. She stepped aside to let Valerie and Danny in, before shutting the door behind them. "I found a pretty sizeable hole in the kitchen, but I blocked it and checked the rest of the house out. It looks like whatever lives here is out at the moment, and as long as we can get out before they get back, we'll be okay."

The room was fairly large, the ceiling high and vaulted with exposed beams running across. A carpet thick with dust crunched beneath his feet, and the leather furniture was all but rotted away. A desolate fireplace stood - probably once proud - toward the center of the room. It seemed as though they were standing in what was once a grand living room. He wondered how many people trooped through here, how many grandchildren sat with grandparents and listened to their stories. He wondered where they were now, if they were still alive. Everything was thick with dust; even the air was hard to breathe.

"I haven't found any food, but I found a pretty big gun vault in the master bedroom. I didn't stop to check it out, I just noticed it as I was doing my run-through." Sam explained as she lead them down a hallway. Danny started noticing long trails of blood, smeared around as if someone was dragging their feet through it. "I wouldn't go in there," Sam whispered as they passed a closed doorway. Bloody handprints mingled with deep scars left by fingernails digging through the wood on the once white paint, and a distinct stench of death was emanating from the room. "I shut the door as I went by...you don't want to know what's in there. 'Specially you, Seth."

Danny nodded, desperately fighting the urge to vomit, before moving past the door as quickly as he could. "Master's back here, with the vault."

The master bedroom door was slightly open already. The darkness made it hard to see, but Danny could make out the outline of a large, king-sized bed in the middle of the room. He turned to his left and saw the outlines of Sam and Valerie, crouched before a large safe. "I think it's unlocked." Valerie murmured. "I just can't find the...oh!"

Sam yanked a handle up, sending a loud metallic click echoing through the room. The three froze, listening intently for any additional sounds, to find the house completely quiet. "Go." Valerie whispered.

The door groaned a little, but it seemed to swing open easily enough. "Holy shit." Sam muttered.

"Seth, come here," Valerie ordered. He stepped forward, just to have five rifles slung into his arms. "Dump those on the bed," She instructed. Danny did as he was told, coughing when the rifles brought an explosion of dust from the ancient blankets strewn across the bed. He turned to find himself chest-to-chest with Sam, whose hands were full with boxes of ammunition. She gazed up at him, her eyes wide. "Sorry." She whispered.

Danny stepped out of the way immediately, moving slowly back toward the vault as Sam dropped the boxes on top of the rifles. "You guys empty this thing out, I'm gonna go to the bathroom."

"Seriously, Val?" Sam asked as Valerie skittered toward the bathroom. "Why didn't you go before we left?"

"I didn't have to go then!" Valerie shouted over her shoulder. There was just enough light left for Danny to see Sam roll her eyes, which drew a chuckle from his lips.

"She is hopeless." Sam muttered. "Check for meds while you're in there!" She called.

"I'm already doing that!" was Valerie's muffled reply. Sam nodded in approval. He felt her watching him as he stooped to gather up what felt like hunting knives.

He glanced up at her, confirming that feeling. "What's up?" He asked.

"Nothing. Um...I'm gonna go check on Tucker, okay? I'm just going to the window, I'm not leaving or anything,"

"That's fine." Danny tried to give her a reassuring smile. She nibbled her lower lip, her eyebrows knit in concern, before nodding and turning toward the window on the right side of the bed. He watched her peer through the blinds furtively, before turning back toward the vault and resuming his attempt to gather up the knives.

"Shit." Sam whispered after a few minutes of silence. Danny turned back to her, having just knelt down to scrape his fingers along the bottom of the vault. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit."

"What's wrong?" Danny was on his feet, striding toward the window quickly. Sam turned before he could reach her, though, so he stopped a few feet short.

"There's a zack out there. I'm not concerned, but I don't think Tucker's noticed it yet, and the worst thing that can happen to anyone is getting caught off-guard by a zack." She turned back to the window, allowing Danny to look out over her shoulder. He spotted the zombie a few yards out, trotting rather quickly toward the house. He paused, turned his nose up to the air and sniffed. Danny swallowed hard.

Sam turned back toward him, her face creased in worry. "You act like you've never dealt directly with a zack before," She murmured.

"I, uh...I hid a lot. I don't like fighting them, y'know...I was running with my mom and whenever they would come she would make me hide until she could get rid of them."

Something flickered in her eyes, but she blinked and it was gone. "So you haven't really dealt with them, have you?"

"N-not if I could help it." He stammered. She examined him a moment longer, before nodding.

A distant gunshot drew their attention back toward the window. Sam swore under her breath. The zombie was on the ground, twitching slightly, and Tucker was standing over him. He saw Tucker kneel down and examine the zombie, before standing back up and shooting it for a second time in the head. It stopped twitching.

"Alright, that sounds gonna draw them in. We've gotta head back now before we have a clan of 'em on us. Val?" Sam strode quickly toward the bathroom door and banged the heel of her hand against the chipped wood. "I know you heard Tucker make that shot, we've gotta go."

"I need another minute," Valerie said, her voice quivering with some strange emotion. Sam threw an incredulous look back at Danny, before banging her hand against the door again.

"We don't have another minute, we've gotta go."

"Find another minute, I'm busy right now."

"What the hell are you doing in there?" Sam's voice was starting to rise, her panic becoming a tangible thing in the room, threatening to choke them all.

"Go help Tucker!" Valerie screamed.

"Oh my God." Sam hissed, turning away from the door and rushing back to the window. Tucker had disappeared back into the barn while they were talking, leaving the zombie sprawled out on the ground.

"There's nothing out there, we've got time -"

"No, we don't," Sam snapped. "They've heard the gun shot, they've caught our scent. We've just sentenced ourselves to death. God, Tucker _knows_ to use a knife when we're on raids! They're drawn to human noises, they can smell our flesh. They're on the way here, if they're not already here."

"Let's start getting the weapons together, that way when Valerie's ready to go we can just run right out the front door," Danny suggested. Sam eyed him, before nodding.

They rushed to the bed, gathering the supplies quickly. For a moment the only sounds reaching them were the sounds of weapons clacking together and their own labored breathing, but a muffled gunshot silenced them both. They froze in place, ears pricked, and after another beat of silence a second gunshot reached them.

Sam sprinted toward the window, before letting out a strangled growl. "Fuck, I fucking _knew_ it!" She screamed. She raced to the bathroom door, beating the wood with her fist. "They're out there, they've got Tucker trapped, now hurry the fuck up so we can get the hell out of here!" And before Valerie could respond, Sam was out of the bedroom and tearing down the hall.

Danny edged toward the window, staring in disbelief at the scene before him. Dozens of zombies had converged on the barn, forcing Tucker to climb up the side of the structure. He was perched on the roof, carefully aiming his shotgun down at the mob below him. He could hear Valerie cursing distantly, but he paid her no mind. Sam appeared at the back door of the house, her part of their load on the ground, as she fired her pistol into the mob of zombies. Four of them dropped instantly, creating confusion among those still standing.

He swallowed hard when they started to rush at Sam, but she did not appear even slightly concerned. She twisted deftly and shot them all down, crouching to trade her pistol for a rifle between waves. Tucker, meanwhile, was still firing into the dwindling crowd on the ground, his laughter only slightly audible over the sounds of the attack.

Danny spotted it before Sam or Tucker. On the opposite side of the barn from where Tucker crouched, a rope was dangling down, tied securely to what looked like the chimney. A rather nimble zombie was taking advantage of it. He was yanking against the rope with all of his might, and already the decrepit chimney was starting to crumble.

"If that thing goes down, the whole thing goes down. Including Tucker." Valerie murmured to Danny's right. He jumped.

"When the hell did you get out of the bathroom?" Danny gasped.

"Does it matter? We've got to stop that thing before it kills Tucker." Valerie said. She shouldered her way past him, yanking the blinds up and unlocking the window. "You've got to cut the rope." She grunted as she forced the window up. The sounds of the fight were no longer muffled.

"With what?" Danny demanded.

"Ghost powers?"

"They'll see me," He said slowly. "You've been so insistent that I stay Seth, but if I use my ghost powers to save Tucker, they'll see it and they'll know it's me."

"I'd rather see him pissed as hell at both of us than dead and none the wiser. Don't you agree?" Her face was hard. "Cut the rope."

Danny turned back toward the window, waited until Tucker and Sam both seemed preoccupied, before shooting a small ecto-ray at the rope from the tip of his right index finger. The rope snapped and the zombie fell backwards with a defeated snarl.

"C'mon," Valerie pulled him by his elbow away from the window. "They're pretty much done, and we're getting close to leaving time."

They gathered the remaining weapons and trooped toward the back door. Tucker was just shimmying down the gutter as Valerie and Danny traipsed out the back door.

"Shit!" He shouted. "Where the hell were you guys?" His grin was wide, his excitement still evident in his eyes. "We were just havin' a party out here!"

"I see that." Valerie observed, glancing over the piles of motionless zombies with a distinct air of disinterest. "It's almost time to go, did you find anything?"

"Nah, someone else emptied this place a while ago. I see you guys were a little more successful," He glanced over the piles of weapons in their arms. "Not exactly what we were looking for, but it's almost better. Where were they?"

"Vault in the master suite. Whoever emptied this place must have run into whichever one of those bastards lived here and didn't make it inside." Tucker laughed appreciatively. "Wanna help us out?"

"Sure," He took two rifles from Valerie's arms, before turning to Danny and holding his hands out. Danny peered nervously up at him, to find his eyes were bright and almost happy. "Don't worry, dude, I don't bite."

Danny chuckled, before handing his old friend three hunting knives. "Alright, let's get outta here. Sam, you ready?"

The trio turned to Sam, who was still beside the barn. She had picked her way through the bodies. In her hand was the rope tied to the crumbling chimney.

Her eyes were fixated on the burned end of the rope, which was still smoking.

* * *

**Jacob: **Tori, have you seen the X-Mens movies?

**Me: **(laughing) Yes, I have seen the X-_Men_ movies.

**Jacob:** That's good. Did you know that there are three X-Mens movies?

**Me:** Yes. I own all of them.

**Jacob: **Did you know that Wolverine is one of the X-Mens?

**Me:** (still laughing) I did.

**Jacob:** And did you know that they're making another X-Mens movie?

**Me: **(struggling to breathe from laughing so hard)

**Jacob is twenty-one. Just saying.**

**Thank you for reading, my pretties.**

**Tori**


	11. Chapter Ten

**I've recovered enough to write this chapter. Thank you so much for all the thoughtful reviews and messages you guys have been sending my way for the last few days, they really mean a lot. I'm in the process of responding to all of them now, so if you haven't gotten anything from me yet, it's probably still in the works.**

**If you guys don't know what I'm talking about and want to know what I'm talking about, please refer to the top A/N of my story entitled **Be Careful What You Wish For**. I really don't want to explain again.**

**Anyways, this is the next chapter. It's a bit shorter than the last one, but I feel like this one is a bit more focused. I didn't feel as scattered when I was writing this chapter. Probably because it didn't take me the better part of a month to write (it was more like two and a half hours) but, whatever. Que sera, sera.**

**I don't want to give anything away in this part of the A/N, so I'll go ahead and leave off with my 'I don't own Danny Phantom' bull.**

**Enjoy (:**

* * *

**Wide Awake**

**Chapter Ten**

**April 21, 2013**

* * *

"Sam?" Tucker called hesitantly. She gave no apparent sign that she heard him. Danny remained frozen where he stood, arms still outstretched from handing Tucker the knives. "Whatcha lookin' at, there?"

"Hm?" She blinked and shook her head, before peering up at Tucker. She glanced over Tucker's shoulders and for one instant her eyes locked with Danny's. He could definitely see something flickering there, as if some portion of her mind was attempting to wrap itself around her discovery. Danny's tongue flicked out and he licked his lips nervously, willing himself to stay still against his instincts, which were to run and hide from her prying gaze as quickly as possible. He could feel his adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed the thick lump suddenly lodged in his throat.

"What are you looking at?" Tucker asked again, pronouncing each word slowly and carefully before throwing an incredulous look over his shoulder at Valerie.

"Oh, the rope." Sam said, lifting it slightly. "I guess I shot it while I was shooting at the zacks. I just thought it was weird that I managed to directly hit the rope."

Tucker grunted and turned on his heel, picking his way carefully through the splayed limbs of fallen zombies and brushing past Danny. Danny remained very still as Sam followed Tucker. She glanced up at him as she passed, and her face was twisted slightly, as if she was attempting to figure out a particularly difficult crossword. He waited until after she was behind him before turning and following suit, albeit much more slowly.

The walk back was, if possible, even more quiet than the walk there. Valerie kept her head down toward the ground, much to Tucker's apparent chagrin; he gave up attempting to have a conversation with her before they were even out of the gates around the property. Sam stayed behind them, occasionally glancing over her shoulder to ensure that Danny was still with them, but she did not speak either. And Danny was too lost in his thank-you prayers to whatever powers be to even think about speaking a single word out loud.

They were the second group back to the bus. Three people Danny did not recognize were lounging on the ground behind the bus, apparently waiting for Valerie to return so that they could deposit their pick-ups into the back and take their seats inside again. Danny fidgeted nervously on the outer edge of the group, watching the way Tucker murmured something to Sam and Sam ignored him. Valerie managed to get the back door open just as Tucker huffed and rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Is everyone PMS-ing around here?" He demanded loudly. Sam's head whipped around and she snarled something Danny could not fully understand. "So that's a yes from Lucifer, here, anyone else?" He asked, craning his head around Sam mockingly as if he was looking for raised hands to tally. Valerie let her head tip back to the sky and her eyes close as Tucker and Sam began bickering.

"Jesus tap dancing Christ," Valerie muttered just loud enough for Danny to hear as he drew up to her side. He carefully tucked the rifles he carried behind the seats Tucker and Sam previously occupied, before glancing up to find her watching Tucker and Sam from the corner of her eye. He turned his head and found them to be inches from each other, Sam's face slowly turning red as they hissed insults at each other.

"Do they do this often?" He asked, scarcely speaking above a whisper for fear of them hearing him. Valerie glanced at him before turning her attention back to the couple in question.

"Sometimes. When one of them is particularly stressed out." She sighed. "I would move out of the way, if I were you." She added under her breath. She cleared her throat, drew herself up to her full height, and just as Danny was scurrying in front of her to stand on her other side, she screeched, "_Hey_! Get your shit in the bus and take this inside, wouldja?"

They did not immediately look around, though Danny noticed that they were no longer speaking to each other. Instead, they glowered at each other, Sam's nostrils flared dangerously, before suddenly she turned and stormed toward the bus. She growled deep in her chest as she threw her weapons into the bus, before stomping around Valerie and Danny and boarding the bus. Tucker remained where he was, waiting until he saw her taking their previous seat on the back of the bus through the back door to move toward the back door. He did not slam his load down as harshly as Sam did, but Danny could tell by the way his biceps were trembling and a muscle in his jaw was jumping that he was using every ounce of self-control he had to do so. Danny dropped his gaze to his feet as Tucker passed, not keen on giving his old friend any reason to lash out at him, physically or verbally. Valerie stayed still until she heard Tucker on the bus. She groaned and buried her face in her hands. "_Thishiz_ _adishter_," She grumbled.

"What?" Danny asked fearfully.

"This is a disaster," She repeated through her slightly parted fingers. They remained still for another moment, before Valerie sighed and dropped her hands to her sides. She popped her neck and turned toward the bus, absent mindedly gesturing for Danny to follow. "C'mon, let's just get on," She said quietly.

Twenty minutes later, the entire raid party was back on the bus. Valerie stood at the very front, carefully counting each head to ensure they were not leaving anyone behind, before nodding to herself and taking her seat behind the wheel. Danny turned himself sideways in the seat again, sneaking a glance back at the rest of the bus as he propped his feet up on the bench beside him. Everyone appeared to be very tired, excluding Tucker and Sam. Many were nodding off, either on the shoulders of their bench partners or the windows beside them. Tucker and Sam, however, appeared to be sitting as far away from each other as humanly possible. Tucker was all but hanging out of the window, his gaze turned pointedly upward toward the heavens, as Sam appeared to be perched on the very corner of the bench. She, too, was glaring out the window, but on the opposite side of the bus as Tucker. She looked as if she was ready to take off running at the slightest hint that Tucker might try speaking to her.

The bus started up, groaning and growling its' displeasure at being woken up, and they began their slow trek back to El Lindo Relajo. Danny chewed on the inside of his cheek as he watched Sam's hair twitch in time with the jostling of the bus.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when the music started. It was a deafeningly loud burst of pounding drums and shredding guitar, building rather quickly to an explosive drop to the first verse. Danny was so caught off-guard by it that he did not recognize the tune until the singer began singing. He gasped audibly. It was his favorite song from before The Event, one he had not heard in over a year.

He grinned in spite of himself. Feelings of euphoria bubbled through his chest, making him want to stand and dance along to the music, regardless of who was watching. He chanced a glance back at Tucker and Sam, silly grin still plastered to his face, until he caught sight of Sam and his grin faltered and vanished.

She was whirled around, facing Tucker, but even from where Danny sat he could see tears welling in her eyes. Tucker was looking at her sideways, apparently unmoved by her obvious displeasure with the song choice. Danny watched Sam shout something fiercely to Tucker, but her words were lost in the music and Danny could not catch what she was saying. Tucker shrugged and turned back to the window. Sam's head jerked back, appalled at his response, before standing and storming up the aisle. She ignored the indignant calls from the other raid members upon whose feet she unintentionally tred, keeping her stony glare fixated on Valerie's rear-view mirror. Danny bent his knees up so that his feet were no longer hanging in the aisle, intending to let her pass, but much to his surprise she dropped unceremoniously into the bench across the aisle from Danny's. He remained very still, watching her fight the tears swimming in her eyes and failing as several escaped and streaked down her face.

She grumbled something to herself as she swiped the tears away angrily, refusing to acknowledge Danny's gaze. He looked away quickly, lifting his hand to pick at the tear in the leather lining the divider before him. "D'you think Tucker's a complete asshole?" Her voice rang out clearly over the music, which quieted considerably as the bridge began to play. Danny glanced up and froze at the realization that she was speaking to him. Her eyes were blood-shot, her cheeks were puffy, and her nose was bright red, but she was so gorgeous in that moment that his heart nearly stopped in his chest.

"Um, no," Danny said, recovering quickly. "Why?"

"This stupid song." She growled, falling back in her seat. Danny bit his lip and glanced around. Tucker was still staring determinedly out the window, apparently oblivious to the fact that Sam was even sitting beside Seth, let alone speaking to him.

"What's wrong with this song?" Danny asked, cautiously moving into the aisle seat of his bench so that they would not have to strain as much to be heard by each other.

"Everything!" She cried, throwing her hands over her head in exasperation. "I _hate_ this song!"

"I kind of like it. It's Weezer, right?" Danny asked before he could think. He felt Sam's gaze zero in on his face. He peered down at her, to find that same emotion flickering in her eyes, far more pronounced than before as she searched his expression.

"Yeah," She finally breathed. Danny nodded, attempting to appear fractionally less terrified than he felt. "You like Weezer?"

"I did before all this happened," He gestured to the desolate landscape outside the windows. It was then that he noticed they were back on the main road, meaning that they were well on their way to being half-way back to the ranch. "I haven't really had a chance to listen to as much music as I did before."

"I would think not." Sam said, a hint of amusement in her voice. They were quiet, Sam's gaze on the blackened horizon ahead, Danny stealing furtive glances at her between carefully counted thirty-second stares at his shoelaces. "There's nothing wrong with the song itself, I guess. It's just what the song represents." She said finally, letting her head fall back against the bench as she turned to look at him again.

"What does it represent?" Danny asked, his confusion evident. "I thought it was just about a guy who messed up and missed his chance with the girl he liked."

"Well, that's what the lyrics talk about, but I...I have a..._past_ with this song. I guess you could call it a past. Whatever, I just don't like this song because it reminds me of someone." She said emotionlessly as she turned her gaze back out the front windshield. And suddenly it hit him why the song bothered her so much. It reminded her of Danny, who she still believed to be dead. _This was my favorite song before The Event_, he reminded himself. It was a fact both Sam and Tucker knew well before the world fell apart. He swallowed hard, his anger with Tucker suddenly boiling in his veins. "Tuck put it on to bother me."

"That's not cool," He said, throwing a heated glance down to the other end of the bus. "Why would he do that?"

She shrugged, her eyelids drooping. The song was over, thankfully. "Whatever." She said again, her voice just barely audible over the pounding bass of the next song, which also happened to be by Weezer. Briefly, he wondered if Tucker put together an entire playlist of songs Danny listened to religiously before The Event for moments like these. He clenched his jaw, resisting the duelling urges to reach across the aisle and squeeze her shoulder reassuringly and fire a well-aimed ectoray at Tucker's forehead (not strong enough to kill him, of course, just strong enough to induce a powerful headache). The desire to tell her the truth washed over him, knotting in his belly and making him fidget restlessly. Once or twice he saw Sam shooting irritated glances at him for his incessant movement, but he could not stop. It was not until he glanced to his left and found himself on the receiving end of a warning glare from Valerie that he finally stopped moving.

The moment the bus rolled to a stop on the grounds of El Lindo, Sam stood and swept off the bus without another word. Danny remained where he was, watching her move quickly over the terrain toward the house as several other people on the ground approached the back of the bus.

He stood and stretched his back, nodding politely to those members of the raid that passed him on their way out of the bus. Valerie stayed seated, counting each person again as they shuffled off the bus. Finally, the only raid party members left on the bus were her, Danny, and Tucker. Tucker was just trotting up the aisle as Valerie stood and turned toward him.

"That wasn't cool, Tuck," She said tiredly. Tucker raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I was just in the mood for some Weezer." He said with a defiant shrug.

She sighed, her impatience with the situation becoming palpable. "You know it fucks with her head. Just leave her alone, okay?" She waited, pointedly tapping her foot while Tucker shifted restlessly from foot to foot.

"Fine. I'll go apologize. Later." He said, slumping his shoulders in defeat and pocketing the iPod. Valerie nodded, before her face creased and worry sparked in her eyes. "What?"

"I need to talk to you guys inside. Seth, you too." Tucker furrowed his brow and glanced quickly between Valerie and Danny. Valerie waited until Danny nodded dumbly before turning and exiting the bus.

"About what?" Tucker asked, watching her pick her way toward the house.

Danny shrugged, struggling between his annoyance with Tucker for bothering Sam and the overwhelming desire to spill his guts out to him. Before he could make a decision, Tucker released a strangled, aggravated sigh, and moved off the bus.

"Do we need to help with the food and stuff?" Danny asked, following quickly behind Tucker.

"Nah. Everyone else takes care of that," Tucker said, rubbing his eyes blearily. "We can go inside and go to bed. Or go see what the hell Valerie wants, I guess." He said, his curiosity evident in his voice. "What the hell does she need to talk to us about? She always talks to Sam when something happens."

"I dunno," Danny said, glancing back at the small mob forming at the back of the bus.

Tucker lead the way soundlessly into the house, tripping over the hidden step in the living room. He muttered several colorful obscenities under his breath as he caught himself, shooting a look back at Danny that let him know if he dared to laugh at that little mishap, he would be very sorry. So Danny kept his mouth shut and pressed into a thin line, slinking along behind Tucker quietly.

One of the French Doors of Valerie's room was ajar, and they could clearly hear a feminine voice carrying out as they entered the dining room. Tucker kicked the door open a little wider, unflinching toward the black scuff the toe of his boot left on the bottom of the door. Danny slipped in after him, shutting the door with a soft click as Tucker dropped into the threadbare armchair in the back corner of the room. Sam was sitting on the edge of the bed, her knees drawn up to her chest and held in place with her arms. She was staring at the door in an effort to ignore Tucker's presence behind her. Valerie was leaning against the headboard of the bed, her hands folded neatly over her stomach and one leg hanging off the edge of the bed. Her eyes were unfocused; clearly, she was lost in thought. Danny folded his own hands behind his back and leaned against the doors. Silence hung heavily in the room until Tucker pointedly cleared his throat.

"Okay. I needed to talk to you guys about something that happened on the raid." Valerie started, shaking her head as she leaned forward slightly.

"If it's about the fact that I shot the first zack instead of shanking him, I'm sorry. I didn't have enough time to get to my knife." Tucker said solemnly from the chair. Sam huffed and rolled her eyes dramatically.

"It's not about that," Valerie said, waving her hand dismissively. Tucker furrowed his brow. "I...I discovered something while we were there."

Sam turned her head, eyeing Valerie carefully. Valerie met her gaze evenly. "Oh my God." Sam said, disgust dripping from every syllable.

"What?" Tucker asked, leaning forward and planting his elbows on his knees.

"I'm pregnant." Valerie said without breaking eye contact with Sam. Danny felt his stomach bottom out. Tucker fell backwards in the chair, an expression of shock plastered to his face. Sam wrinkled her nose in repulsion. "I noticed an unopened pregnancy test in the bathroom and...I missed my last period...I just wanted to be sure, and -"

"You sure it wasn't expired?" Sam asked, her gaze fixated on the vent above Valerie's bedroom door. "Those things do expire, you know. Like condoms. Did you know condoms expire?" She shot a haughty glare back at Tucker, who was still unresponsive.

"The expiration date was May of next year." Valerie said flatly. "It was still good."

Sam huffed again. Danny glanced nervously between the two women and Tucker, who was still dumbfounded. "How could you guys let this happen?" Sam hissed a moment later. She launched herself off the bed and glared accusingly between Tucker and Valerie. "Are you insane? Are you _stupid_?"

"It was an accident, Sam." Valerie said, obviously offended. "We didn't do this on purpose."

"It doesn't matter if it was on accident or on purpose!" Sam shrieked. "All that matters is that it _happened_! Do you realize the consequences this means for us? I mean, forget about the fact that you two are having a baby as teenagers, as _screwed_ as that is, just consider the fucked up world you're gonna be bringing this kid into! Look at where we are, look at _what_ we are! Think about what we fight _every damn day_! Jesus Christ, Val, you're the _leader_ of this group! And Tuck! You're the best fucking zack hunter we _have_!"

"I am not." Tucker said hoarsely. He was still dazed, Danny could tell, but he was starting to come back around. "You're the best hunter we have."

"Whatever." Sam growled, in no mood to accept compliments. "The point is, you two can't continue on in the roles you've been playing for the last year."

"Says who?" Valerie demanded sharply.

"_Me_!" Sam screeched, hysteria causing her voice to rise several octaves. Danny and Tucker both winced, but Valerie glared unflinchingly at the angry woman before her. "You can't keep on like you have been, not being pregnant! It's not fucking _fair_ to that kid! No! It's not just your life you're risking now! And Tucker!" Sam whirled around, hair flying like wildfire as she rounded on the cowering man. "You're gonna be a _father_! You can't do that to that kid, he deserves to have both his parents!"

"Sam -"

"No! Shut up! _Fuck you_!" Her voice cracked and rose, if possible, even higher. Tucker blanched immediately. "The world is so fucked up as it is right now, you can't force this kid to grow up in it without his parents! I won't fucking _let_ you!"

"Okay, calm down," Valerie said, her voice suddenly soothing. "What do you propose we do?"

Sam was breathing quickly, her eyes wild. She began to pace, apparently in an effort to calm herself. Six eyes watched her erratic circling, waiting with bated breath until finally, she paused. She heaved a great sigh, before turning back to Tucker and Valerie. She pointed at Valerie. "You can't go out on raids anymore. You can't help corral zacks on the lower levels. And you can't lead recoveries, either." Valerie nodded in agreement. "And you." She pointed at Tucker, who sat up a bit straighter. "You can't go on raids, either. You can't help me corral zacks. You can't go with me on recoveries. And you can't be my Zack Bowl partner anymore."

"_What_?" Tucker spluttered. "Are you _serious_?"

"As a fucking heart attack." Sam spat, venom in her voice. "You will not, I repeat, _will not_ put yourself in harm's way unless it is absolutely, _completely_ necessary. Have I made myself clear?"

Tucker glared at her, and Danny could see him battling internally with the desire to argue with her. But finally he dropped his gaze and crossed his arms over his chest. "Fine." He said shortly, addressing his knees.

"What are we gonna do about you not having a partner anymore?" Valerie asked gently.

Sam resumed her pacing, a bit more slowly than before. "I don't need to compete in the Zack Bowl anymore, first of all." She said, chewing the inside of her cheek thoughtfully and ignoring Tucker's sounds of protest. "It was just for fun anyways, it's not like I _have_ to do that. As for raids, I'll join Lester's group. He's been begging us to go with them lately, anyways, so he'll be pleased. I don't need help corralling zacks."

"And recoveries?" Valerie asked carefully.

Sam turned to Danny, and he felt his heart leap into his throat. "I can train Seth, and he'll be my partner." She said firmly. "That is...if he wants to."

Danny blinked. He could feel them all staring at him. Sam was waiting patiently, and her eyes were telling him that he could say no. Valerie gazed at him expectantly, nodding slightly when he glanced at her. _Go on_, she seemed to tell him. And Tucker glared daggers at him across the room, his animosity toward Seth suddenly back in full force.

"Okay," Danny heard himself saying. "I'll go with you."

* * *

**Several things I want to address here:**

**1. Please don't take this as me criticising teen pregnancy. I am not, in any way, trying to do so. The only reason Sam said that was to try to get her point across. Again, I am not trying to criticise teen pregnancy. Not, not, not. If I've offended you, I extend my sincerest apologies.**

**2. Only one person seemed to notice that Valerie spent an abnormal amount of time in the bathroom last chapter. And they managed to correctly guess what she was doing in the bathroom, too. Kudos, **ShaowDragon357**. #urockmysox #forrealtho #waitthisisnttwitter**

**3. If the 'f-word' makes you uncomfortable, I apologize. I don't really like writing it. I feel like it's such a vulgar word that doesn't really help the story, but in this case it sort of fit. Sorry. ):**

**Okay, I think that's it. Again, we still have quite a ways to go with this story. It's not quite over yet. There's still one more twist I'm gonna throw in before I start building to the climax. I think. If the story stays the way it is in my head right now, that's what's gonna happen.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Tori**


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Okay, OKAY, here's chapter eleven. No, this isn't a recovery, it's pointless plot filler and random crap and stuff. I tried to turn it into the recovery but I needed to explain what recoveries are and how they differ from raids and as I started writing it I realized it was gonna need its own chapter.**

**So here. Aypoingoaiupo.**

**Recovery probably won't even be in the next chapter. That'll be something else. I don't know when that will be up. I have a ton of stuff to do before the semester ends in a week and I'm stressin' out over it. But I got this out of my system and nowwwww I'm gonna go work on my final project for my English class.**

_Out of__ curio__sity_, if any of you readers are fans of _The Hunger Games_ and have seen the **movie**, do you think it's plausible to compare the District 11 riot that happens immediately following Rue's death to the Occupy Wall Street protests that went on a while back? I have to connect a sci-fi movie to real life events and that's about all I got at this point. Like, the Capital is the 1% and the districts are the 99%. I'm a little brain-fried right now.

**Speaking of sci-fi movies, I don't know if any of you have noticed this. But I've been having fun with minor character names. Starting in chapter eight, virtually every minor character name I mention (excluding Lars) is a name I've taken from a relatively well-known science fiction movie. **_If you can correctly guess what names come from what movies, leave them in a review._** I'll think of something to do if someone guesses them all correctly. And yes, I'll be adding more names in as I go.**

**Btw if you're reading this like six months after it's been completed, don't do that, I probably won't be checking reviews for this as carefully as whatever I'm working on at that point. Sorry. ):**

**Long A/N. Sorry. If you're still reading it, good job, trooper. That's all I got so here we go.**

**I don't own Danny Phantom.**

* * *

**Wide Awake**

**Chapter Eleven**

**May 3, 2013**

* * *

Danny closed Valerie's door as quietly as possible, relishing in the way the wood muffled Tucker's angry words. He peered up through his messy hair, watching the way Sam ran her hand through her own hair distractedly. She glanced at him and he could see her worry and fear like storm clouds in her eyes.

She glanced up at him and he felt his heart skip a beat. "C'mon," She motioned for him to follow her. He rounded the table immediately, following her toward the other side of the dining room, swallowing hard against the lump that rose in his throat when he realized she was leading him into her bedroom. She pushed the door open and stepped to one side, glancing back at Valerie's door worriedly as he passed her.

Her room was an explosion of what he could only describe as _her_. He could see traces of Tucker here and there, but it was obvious that Tucker no longer spent much time there with her anymore. The air was thick with her perfume, and he had to remind himself to keep his mouth from gaping. Two twin beds were shoved on opposite sides of the room, one neatly made and sporting a few centimeters of dust, the other a tangled mess of ratty blankets, pillows, and a t-shirt or two. A battered desk sat at the foot of what was obviously her bed, with a flickering lamp with a blue lampshade precariously balanced on the corner. The space of wall just beside the door proudly displayed a rather dusty wooden bookshelf, which was absolutely bursting at the seems with dozens of well-worn books. There was no dust on those books. At first, Danny was overwhelmed by the fact that her entire wardrobe seemed to be hanging from every piece of furniture in the room. But as he stepped further in and turned slowly on the spot, he realized that every available surface was littered with dusty trinkets and cracked picture frames. She obviously developed a habit of collecting items that caught her eye while out on missions. Worn, faded baseballs and tiaras with a few missing rhinestones peeked out at him beneath shirts and pants; a battered wooden cross with the word "faith" messily carved into the surface hung on the wall above a rusty metal menorah caked in old, yellowing wax centered on the desk. A hopelessly tangled slinky was sitting forgotten on top of a closed, wooden antique vinyl record player proudly boasting several chips and scratches . A rather impressive collection of vinyl records leaned against one of the legs of Sam's bed. Breathlessly, his eyes scanned over everything in the room, memorizing the exact layout as quickly as he could. He wondered if this was what starving men felt like when they were offered a loaf of bread.

He moved closer to the desk, already attempting to see through the thick layer of dust coating the frames, only faintly aware of Sam closing the door and crossing the room to her bed. His stomach flipped when he noticed dried, brown drops of blood dotting the edges of a few of the frames, but he pressed forward regardless. Each frame featured pictures of people he did not recognize; for a moment, he wondered if these were the stock photos featured in the frames at stores. But as he got closer, he realized that there were no advertisements over the pictures. They were real, the families and friends photographed were all really families and friends. His heart ached for them, for the reality of the fact that most of them were probably dead. Every molecule in his body froze, though, when he spotted a picture of people he recognized. It was a smaller frame, a simple metal square, and the glass was cracked on the lower right-hand corner. He lifted it carefully, holding this breath as he brought it closer to his face. The picture was faded and creased, but their faces were still visible.

It was an older picture, taken during the winter break of their sophomore year. The night before Sam's parents would be flying their entire family to Paris to visit distant relatives, Danny and Tucker insisted that she join them for a bonfire with the extended Fenton family outside the city limits of Amity Park. The picture was a snapshot of the three of them laughing, brandishing red Solo cups filled to the brim with soda (or in Sam's case, water) in a silent, frozen toast. Danny had his arms thrown around each of their necks, pulling them into his sides despite Sam's hand firmly planted on his chest pushing him back and Tucker's strangled half-shout, drowned out by his laughter. He could clearly remember that night, how the air nipped at his exposed face and the smoke dried his eyes out. Sam stuck close by his side that night, politely introducing herself to his aunts and uncles and cousins. The flurries of snow drifting peacefully from the sky caught in her hair and eyelashes, giving her a heavenly glow as she talked and mingled and laughed.

The realization that his recognition of the picture was probably causing a visible physical reaction hit him. He tightened his grip on the frame and cleared his throat. "Is that you?" Danny asked hoarsely, suddenly aware of how closely Sam was watching his examination of the photo.

"Yeah," Sam said quietly. He glanced up at her to find her eyes unfocused and her face lit with a soft, serene smile. "Me, Tucker, and the friend we lost that night. The one that looks like you."

He let his eyes fall back to the picture, trying to ignore the ache in his chest at the sound of the pain in her voice. He busied himself with remembering how warm she was that night, tucked into his side as they watched the last embers of the bonfire slowly burn out. Her hair smelled like lilies and vanilla, a combination so lethally intoxicating it still made his knees weak over two years later. He clenched his jaw. "It's weird, isn't?" She asked, bringing him hurtling back to the present.

"What's weird?" Danny asked, unable to tear his eyes away from the photograph.

"How much you look like him," Her voice was soft again, almost melodic. Danny peered over the edge of the frame at her, watching her shoulders slump forward and her eyes slide in and out of focus, her entire body falling limp as she lost herself in memories. He was content to continue staring at her in this presumably rare moment of peace, but the sound of the back door slamming shut made them both jump. Danny quickly reclaimed his diligent study of the photo while Sam subtly shook herself out of her reverie.

"We should talk about recoveries." She sighed. He quickly replaced the picture, careful to avoid disturbing her other belongings, before crossing the room and perching on the edge of Tucker's bed. A cloud of dust rose up around him as he sat. She waited until he settled before closing her eyes and sucking in a deep breath. "Do you have any idea what a recovery is?" She asked, opening her eyes to gaze at him.

"Um...no," Danny said, feeling himself blush a little at his own inexperience. "Sorry."

"That's okay. I wasn't really expecting you to." Sam braced her fists at the base of her back and arched, her brow furrowing as her spine popped. She stretched her arms out before her, back still arched, rolling her wrists until each one popped. She slumped back down and popped her neck from side to side, before opening her eyes and giving him a smile that did not touch her eyes. "A recovery is a lot like a raid, except recoveries happen during the day and there are a lot fewer parties involved, and the parties are made up of two people only. Recoveries are raids designed for larger bounties, like vehicles or fuel."

"You guys can still find fuel?" Danny asked incredulously.

"You'd be surprised at how many of these ranches have reserves overflowing with fuel. But, yeah. And we're getting low, it's about time for a fuel recovery."

"Okay," Danny said slowly. "So why are raids at night and recoveries in the day?"

"Since more people are involved in raids, we use night as a cover. I'm not saying that raiders aren't trained, but some of them aren't...ah...varsity, I guess you could say. Recoveries are reserved for the varsity raiders. Me and Tucker, Valerie and Lester, Theo and River, Simon and Kaylee, and Dom and Arthur are the only ones that go on raids...until tonight. Tuck and Val are out, which means I need to find two more raiders to join the recovery team. You're one," She pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger. "And I'll probably see if Mal's interested in joining, she always gets so pissed off when Dom goes without her, but she's only gonna want to go if she can be with Dom which means Artie'll need to find a new partner and I don't think he gets along great with Lester..." she trailed off, glancing out the window between the two beds and chewing the inside of her cheek as she lost herself in thought.

"So that's all recoveries are?"Danny asked hesitantly. Sam's familiar gaze fell back on his face and his heart suddenly swelled.

"Well, that's what most of it is. Tucker and I tended to explore a little while we were out there. I don't know that that's the best idea for you and I on our first go, but -"

"I mean if you want to explore..." Danny interrupted. "I'm okay with that."

Sam arched an eyebrow, a quizzical look on her face. "'Kay," She said slowly.

"Really, I'm okay with it. It might actually be kind of fun. I was always kind of scared to explore when I was on my own, but now that I'm with people that actually know what they're doing, it could be fun."

"I don't think it's a great idea to explore on your first trip. Tuck and I didn't start exploring until about four months after we started recoveries, and even then it was only for a few minutes at a time. But," the left corner of her mouth curled upward in a crooked grin. "It is fun." She said, nodding slowly. "We have to be really careful, but...once, we found an abandoned music store, and we spent two hours destroying the guitars and just wailing on the pianos."

"Was that the time that you guys dropped a piano on a zack?" Danny asked, leaning forward in his excitement.

"Yeah!" Sam laughed. "How'd you know about that?"

"Valerie told me about it, that is so _awesome_! How did you guys manage to _do_ that, though?"

"Well, we heard him coming, so we decided to have a little fun with him. We noticed on the way in that whoever left the place had a piano on the roof to grab attention from people passing on the freeway. We climbed up there and realized that it was an actual, working piano. I guess he thought if he sat on the roof and played the piano it would make people want to come in and shop. I dunno, these rednecks were so stupid. Anyways, we lured him right up to the front door and we just shoved the piano over the side and it was like a bullseye," Sam mimicked the motions of pushing a heavy box as Danny laughed. "It was pretty much the greatest moment of my apocalypse life,"

"Sounds like it was amazing," She nodded vehemently in agreement.

A sudden silence swelled between them. Danny dropped his gaze to his knees when he realized Sam's smile was fading. He looked back up when she cleared her throat. "We'll go out tomorrow morning to do a few practice drills. You should get some sleep before then."

He nodded. They stood at the same time. Danny smoothed his shorts awkwardly as Sam crossed her arms over her chest and scratched the side of her nose. "Well, um..." He rubbed the back of his neck and coughed awkwardly. "G'night," He said softly.

She watched him move toward the door. He had the door half-open when he heard her boots scuffing quickly along the wooden floor. "Seth, wait," She called.

Danny froze, one foot before the other. He felt a slight rise in temperature behind him as she approached his back. He turned toward her slowly, holding his breath. "Yeah?"

"Would, um...I mean, I just...it's not like you...um..." She brought a slightly trembling hand up to her forehead. "What I'm trying to say...or ask, really, is -"

The backdoor swung open and Tucker lumbered in. He was muttering to himself, his anger radiating from his body, but the moment he caught sight of Sam and Danny, the color drained from his face. He froze on the other side of the table, nostrils flaring and fists clenched. Veins stood out against his forehead and along his forearms.

"Nevermind." Sam said quietly. Danny could not tear his gaze away from Tucker. Without a second glance, Tucker stormed the rest of the way around the table and vanished into Valerie's room. Danny closed his eyes against in a lousy attempt to ignore his best friend's shouts of renewed anger. "I'll see you in the morning."

He tried to agree, to wish her a pleasant evening, but he found that his voice was gone.

"Hey," Danny groaned slightly at the fingers prodding his right arm. He turned slowly, opening his right eye a fraction of an inch to stare at the man in the cot beside him. "I've just realized I haven't introduced myself properly," He said in a striking British accent. He brushed a lock of blonde hair out of his green eyes and gave Danny a toothy grin. "M'name's Eams,"

"Da-uh...Seth," Danny reached across the gap between their cots and shook Eams' hand. His previous irritation at the nearly two hours he'd spent staring at the stars, waiting for fatigue to finally reach him being prodded away in his last moments of consciousness vanished at the prospect of making a new friend.

"Nice to meet you, Seth," Eams beamed. "Sounds like you come from the northern states, am I right?"

"Yeah, Wisconsin. You sound British." Danny said. He closed his eyes at how dumb he sounded.

"Oh, yeah, I come from 'cross the pond. I was visiting family last year in Missouri when the virus hit. I'd say I spent a good two months squatting in the basement of an old shoe outlet store when Val and the gang passed through and picked me up. We headed this way and we've been here ever since," He chuckled. "How'd you end up in Texas? You're new to the group, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah, but I was already here with my mom. We were visiting family in the Dallas-Fort Worth area when the plague hit and my mom and I were the only ones to survive. We came down this way and..."

"Say no more, I got you. Well, welcome aboard, at least,"

"Eams!" A female voice hissed from Eams' other side. A pale face framed with ringlets of shockingly red hair appeared over Eams' arm, eyeing Danny curiously.

"Relax, Kee, I'm making friends," Eams gestured to Danny proudly. "This is Seth, he hails from Wisconsin!"

"Hey, Seth," Kee grinned and waved over Eams' shoulder. "Don't feel bad if you ignore him, he has a bad habit of talking while people try to sleep."

"Oi! Woman, I don't appreciate that much," Eams grumbled, rolling onto his back and mock-glaring at her. "I was just havin' a right nice chat with my new mate -"

"Goodnight, Seth," Kee interrupted, smiling at Danny again. Danny grinned back, listening for just a moment more to Eams complain to Kee before rolling to his left side and staring at the empty horizon before him.

Eventually Eams stopped talking and the world around Danny fell silent. There were no crickets chirping or frogs croaking or any of the usual sounds he heard in the night. It was as if the mute button was pressed, allowing the scene to play out in complete and utter silence. It was unnerving. He realized fairly quickly after noticing this that he probably would not be getting any sleep that night.

He guessed it was about three o'clock in the morning, about an hour after he met Kee and Eams, when he heard quiet footsteps crunching through the dirt by the house. He turned his head slowly and spotted a feminine figure ghosting through the shadows cast by the house beneath the full moon. He waited until she rounded the corner to stand and slink along behind her silently. Peering carefully around the edge of the house, he spotted a girl with raven hair done in a messy braid down her back wearing a familiar white t-shirt approaching the apple tree he examined the night before. He held his breath as her steps slowed. She knelt down at the base of the tree, reaching for something in the dirt.

He felt his heart come to a full stop when Sam turned slightly, giving him a clear view of the apple he dropped the night before in her hand.

His feet were moving before he was aware of making a decision. Before Sam even had a chance to turn her head, he was back in his cot, on his left side, eyes firmly closed and chest rising and falling evenly. His ears were pricked, catching her footsteps moving toward him before she was even around the house. Despite the urge to run, he forced himself to breathe slowly and evenly and tried to loosen all the muscles in his body to imitate sleep. His heart thumped uneasily against his ribcage as she approached him.

Sam moved up to him, all the way to the edge of his cot. He felt her kneeling, bracing herself with one hand on the edge of the cot. She was so close to him, he could feel her breath washing over his face. He had to work hard to keep himself from reaching out to her.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when her fingers brushed along his hairline. She brushed his hair out of his face gently and even though every nerve in his forehead was suddenly a live wire under her fingertips he could feel her closely examining his face.

"No," She whispered. "You're not. It's not possible." Precisely four seconds of utter silence passed before she released an angry sigh and he heard her fall onto her rear with a small huff. "Pull it together, Sam, you're acting crazy! It's not, _he's_ not. You're crazy. You're stressed out and Valerie and Tucker are making you crazy and your imagination is just going crazy. That's all it is. Fucking _crazy_."

It took every ounce of will-power to resist screaming that she was wrong. He did release a low growl, though, deep in his chest, before rolling onto his back. Sam fell silent at his movement. Several moments passed after he stilled before she sighed and hauled herself up to a standing position. A hollow thump hung heavily in the air until her footsteps alerted him that she was walking away. He waited until she was a safe distance away before cautiously opening one eye.

The apple with a single bite taken out of it was lying in the dirt beside his cot.

* * *

**Guess the movies each names belong to and I'll do something. Idk what. But some names come from the same movies. So one movie could provide several names. **There's one name that's in two different movies.** That one's confusing. I'll count either movie correct for that one name.**

**Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna go now.**

**Thanks for reading.**

**Tori**


	13. Chapter Twelve

**I'm so obsessed with Starkid it's not even funny.**

**Seriously. Send help.**

**I've had Get Back To Hogwarts stuck in my head for over a week now. What are this. What are my life.**

**Heh. Jenna Marbles.**

**Okay, yeah, here's the next chapter. I'm sorry I suck at updating, I've had massive writer's block and alkkjdiuojklpoia. You know how it is. But I got it hammered out and now I'm gonna go watch another Starkid musical.**

**And then I'm gonna cry because I'm not in Starkid.**

**I don't own Danny Phantom, Starkid, or Jenna Marbles, but I wish I owned all of that. I do own the rights to attend an online government class for the summer. Woo, college.**

**Alrighty. Enjoy! (:**

* * *

**Wide Awake**

**Chapter Twelve**

**June 4, 2013**

* * *

"Again." Sam said, the annoyance in her voice ringing through the air. Danny groaned, wiping the sweat away from his brow with the back of his hand. "C'mon, Seth, get up."

He was sitting in the dirt at the base of the cliff in the ranch's property, coughing slightly as the dust settled around him. Sam leaned against a large, rusted, blood-stained storage unit, which was faintly rattling and echoing as a zombie Sam caught hours before moaned and clawed at the walls to escape. "They're not gonna wait for you to get up."

He sighed and hauled himself up to a defensive crouch. He quickly counted in his head and choked down the urge to groan again when he realized this would be the eighteenth time he attempted to ward Sam's attacks off. Sam arched an eyebrow at him as he shifted his weight experimentally. He froze at the look on her face. "What?" He asked.

"Your weapon?" She sighed.

Danny dove toward the thin metal rod they found in the foliage earlier that morning. He tightened his grip around the rod as he dropped back into that defensive crouch before her. Sam shook her head slightly, a small half smile turning the corner of her mouth up, before she dropped into her own crouch. Danny clenched his jaw and swallowed as Sam began to circle him, a predatory gleam in her eyes. Beads of sweat gathered on his upper lip and dripped down his back. He wondered how hot it was outside, before a wave of annoyance made his temples throb at the thought of the farmer's tan he was sure to be sporting from the scorching sun overhead.

She darted forward, striking faster than a snake, completely catching him off-guard. After the fifth time she flipped him onto his back, he stated feeling a little less guilty about whipping her bare legs with the rod, so this time he did not hesitate to swing it across her left thigh as hard and as fast as he could. He heard her grunt, he saw the flash of a bright red welt rising against her porcelain skin, before her arm was around his neck and she was dragging him backwards. His ghostly instincts told him to use his intangibility to slip away like smoke through her fingers, but he resisted, quickly running through his human survival techniques in his mind to come up with an escape technique.

By the time Sam's center of gravity was reinstated behind him, Danny had her wrist in a vice-like grip in his left hand. He wormed his thumb up between her wrist and his throat, ignoring the way his nail scraped against the sensitive flesh of his neck and pressing the pad of his thumb against the veins connecting her hand to her arm. He pressed down hard, causing her fingers to slightly loosen their braid through his hair. Immediately he swung her arm up over his head and with one hand and pure brute strength he hoisted her up over his shoulder. He could hear her growling, he could feel her writhing against him, trying to break free, but his grip around her was too strong. He took a few quick steps forward and with that momentum he flipped her over completely, waiting until she landed solidly on her back before bringing the tip of the rod to the center of her neck. He let it rest gently against her windpipe, meeting her gaze as they both gasped for air. Sam's eyes were wide.

She swiped the rod away from her throat, and he allowed it to fall from his hand. It landed with a dull metallic clatter in the dust beside her. Danny stumbled backwards a few steps as Sam quickly picked herself up from the ground. She brushed the dirt off of her body, throwing furtive glances his way through her hair when she thought he was not paying attention. After a solid thirty seconds of silence, she brushed her hair away from her face and planted her hands on her hips, meeting his gaze evenly.

"That was impressive." She said, still breathing heavily. "Were you capable of that the entire time?"

"I didn't want to hurt you," He shrugged sheepishly, glancing down at his feet.

"Oh," She said softly. He peered up at her through his bangs. Her eyes were unfocused and she was nibbling on her lower lip. She shook her head and turned to glare at him. "Next time we run this, don't worry about hurting me. I'll be fine, okay?"

She turned away from him and knelt to scoop the rod up from the ground. "Okay, but I'm not gonna purposely hurt you for the sake of training," Danny said as she marched toward the storage unit.

"I'm not saying you should," Sam said, seizing the strap of his backpack and slinging it over her shoulder. She paused beside him, allowing him to unzip the largest compartment to extract a water bottle they packed earlier from the depths. "But I'm saying that if you'd done that on the first drill, we could have gone back inside a long time ago."

He let her walk a few steps ahead of him, watching the way his backpack bumped and swayed slightly against her back as she picked her way through the brush. Valerie allowed him to hide it in her closet that first night after seeing Tucker and Sam. He snuck in later, when he was sure Tucker was out, before dumping its' contents onto the floor of the closet and presenting it to Sam to use for training that morning. She'd frozen when he first pulled it out, as if part of her recognized it, but she was not sure where she knew it from. He could the moment she decided it was just coincidence in her eyes, the exact second that spark of joy died and her lovely violet eyes fell flat. He sighed.

"How'd it go?" Valerie asked as they trooped into the dining room. She was sitting at the table with Tucker; Danny saw them quickly retract their hands from the table top as he and Sam entered.

"It sucked all the way up until about ten minutes ago, when he almost killed me." Sam said, throwing a grin over her shoulder at him. "After that, it was pretty cool."

"So Seth's gonna be a good Zack killer?" Valerie asked, flashing a smile at Danny.

"We'll need a little more time to train, but I think he's gonna be pretty good. Maybe Zack Bowl good."

"Well, is he good enough for a recovery right now?" Valerie quipped.

"As in right _now_, right now?" Sam asked, all traces of humor gone from her face.

"We're almost out of fuel, so I need someone to go tap into the supply over in Ponderosa before the next raid."

"So send Dom and Artie!" Sam dropped his backpack at her feet and leaned on the table. "Seth's not ready for a real recovery, not yet. He hasn't even fought a real Zack."

"Dom's sick." Tucker said, planting his right elbow on the table and dropping his chin into his right hand.

"Make Eams to it, then, he's getting on my nerves." Sam grumbled.

"Sam," Valerie said firmly.

"Fine! Send Mal with him! Seth's not ready to go out there, not by a long shot."

"Why can't _you_ go with Artie?" Valerie asked.

Her question was immediately met with cries of protest from Sam and Tucker alike. "Okay fine I get it!" Valerie shouted over their shouts. They both quieted considerably. "Jesus, calm down. It was just a suggestion."

"A stupid suggestion," Tucker said irritably.

"Seth does need to get out there, though." Valerie said, ignoring Tucker's heated glance. "It doesn't have to be a recovery, it doesn't even have to be very far, but he needs to get out there. Why don't you take him out, Sam?"

"Okay," Sam said slowly, suspicion flickering in her eyes. "What are you two doing?"

The couple exchanged a glance, before Valerie took a deep breath and turned a steeled gaze back to where Danny and Sam stood. "We were trying to come up with how we're gonna tell the group what's going on."

"Say no more," Sam turned on her heel and brushed past Danny, making her way to the front door. Danny brought his hand up, a half-hearted wave goodbye, as he started to follow her. He was half-way through the front room when he heard Tucker call his name.

"Hold on a minute," Tucker said, jogging toward him. Sam froze in the doorway, narrowing her eyes. "Go outside, princess, I'll send him out in a second. I need to talk to him."

"I swear to God, Tuck -"

"Get out!" Tucker shouted. Sam rolled her eyes and slammed the door behind her. Danny watched her stomp down the pathway, before Tucker crossed his arms over his chest and cleared his throat. "First of all, I want you to know that I don't hate you. Val pointed out that the way I've been acting lately hasn't exactly reflected that, so I just wanted to verbalize it. I don't hate you."

Danny nodded, wondering where Tucker was going.

Tucker heaved a sigh. "That being said, I need to talk to you about something really important. Last year, when all of this shit started, Sam and I lost our best friend. He died that night. We aren't even sure how he died, we never even saw him that night. I made a promise to that friend that I would keep Sam safe at all costs if anything ever happened to him. So far, I've kept that promise. I'm gonna respect her wishes and Valerie's wishes and step down from fighting, but I need you to make me a promise before I can fully come to peace with that decision." Tucker took a step forward, bringing the tip of his nose within inches of Danny's. "I need you to keep her safe. I've seen the way you look at her, I know you think she's hot or whatever, but I need you to promise me that you will protect her at all costs. I need you to swear that you'll die before you let her get hurt." He was breathing hard, his eyes were wide. Seriousness radiated from his body.

"I swear." Danny said solemnly, sincerity coursing through his limbs. "I'll die before I let anything happen to her."

Tucker drew back a few inches, blinking in surprise. Silence swelled between them as the gravity of the situation settled. After a moment of examination, Tucker nodded slowly. "Alright. Go."

"What did he want?" Sam grumbled as Danny closed the front door.

"He was giving me a pointer before we left. He said you always dive to your left when you're fighting a group, so I should be prepared to counter that." Danny lied smoothly. Sam nodded, before stooping and seizing the backpack from the ground.

"We're taking the Jeep, I don't care what Valerie says." Sam said, marching toward the back of the house quickly. She twirled a set of keys around her index finger as they went. "You should go ahead and come to terms with me driving, because that's what's about to happen." She threw over her shoulder.

Danny snorted. "Done." He murmured.

They rode in silence to the gate of the property. Danny leapt out of the car and shoved the gate open. It took nearly every ounce of his strength to make the rusted hinges move, but he had it done in less than two minutes. Sam drove through, parking just outside and sliding out to help him close the gate.

He turned his gaze out the window, watching the empty horizon bake beneath the midday sun as they drove south. Sam was humming to her self, so quietly that Danny almost thought he was imagining it. He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the window.

"There's another Jeep over in this body shop on the other side of town," Sam said suddenly. Danny turned toward her, still leaning against the door. "Tucker and I go over there sometimes when we need to get away from the group. We've been working on restoring the engine so that we can use it for ourselves whenever we get it fixed. It's pretty much the safest place outside of the ranch in Clifton, but there's a chance that a zack could find us, so we're gonna need to be really careful. Vigilant. Okay?" She glanced over at him before quickly returning her gaze to the road.

"Okay," Danny nodded. They were already driving through the out most reaches of Clifton, and fifty yards ahead on his right, he could see a rundown building with two giant garage doors coated in a thick layer of dust. Sam pulled the car off to the side of the road, slowing the car until they rolled to a stop outside of the body shop. He slid out and glanced around, feeling incredibly exposed at the lack of other buildings surrounding them. Sam rounded the Jeep and yanked one of the garage doors open, revealing the front end of a Jeep Wrangler. She was grinning as she turned back to Danny.

"You comin', Alexander?" She asked. He grinned and followed her into the shadows of the body shop.

"So," She huffed slightly as she sat on the floor. He perched on the edge of a work bench, watching her slide under the car on her back with a wrench in hand. "You're from Wisconsin,"

"Uh, yeah. Milwaukee."

"Cool. You ever hear about a guy named Vlad Masters? He owned some football team up there."

"Oh, right! Yeah, I heard about him, he was kind of weird right?"

From beneath the Jeep, he heard a muffled, scoffing laugh. "He was a fruit loop." She called. They were quiet for a moment. "Did you have family up there?"

"I mean, I still lived at home when all of this happened. My mom and I were in Dallas visiting one of her sisters when all of this happened. We were in an outlet store when chaos broke out."

Sam slid out and propped herself up on her elbows. "Where was your dad?" She asked.

Danny swallowed the lump in his throat and blinked. "He was still in Wisconsin with my brothers and sisters." He said solidly.

"How many siblings did you have?"

"Three brothers, four sisters." He answered. "I had an older brother and an older sister, but the rest were younger than me."

"And they were all in Wisconsin when it hit?" She asked, disbelief wrinkling her nose.

"Yep. I don't even know if they're alive or dead at this point. I mean, I highly doubt they're alive, but...you know," Sam looked down at her feet. "What?"

"My dad and grandma were in Europe when it hit my hometown." She said quietly. "So I know what you mean. About not knowing for sure," Another heavy silence rose up between them. "My mom, on the other hand, was with me when it happened."

"What happened to her?" Danny asked carefully. She glanced up at him briefly.

"Everything was fine the night before. I had dinner with Tucker and -...and then I went home, and it was fine, but then everything went to shit. I was hungry, I didn't eat much, so I went to the kitchen to make toast. It was three, maybe four o'clock in the morning. We were supposed to be leaving the next day for the mountains, he said it was supposed to be safe there. But we never made it to the morning. My mom...I don't know when it happened, or how. I don't even really know if she knew it'd happened. But she fell to the plague and...I think it was probably the smell of the toast that did it." Danny could feel his eyes bulging from his head. He could still picture it so perfectly: the flames licking the walls, the heat making the air dance, and the faintest trace of her plum lip gloss on the burnt surface of the bread. "She came down the stairs and saw me and obviously went ballistic."

"What happened next?" Danny asked breathlessly. He could feel himself edging closer to her, gripping the edge of the bench tightly.

"I had to get out of there. I had to survive." Her eyes were unfocused and far away, as if she was still in the kitchen of her home. "We were pretty well-off...we were rich. There was this big trash chute in the kitchen that dropped over a furnace. And I...I stabbed her with a butcher knife and pushed her down the chute. I stabbed her in the heart. It was before we figured out that a headshot is the only thing that can kill a zack. She fell down the chute and the furnace sort of exploded and my house caught fire. I almost didn't make it out, but luckily Valerie happened to be flying by on this hoverboard she used to have and she pulled me out. She took me across town to this giant community storm cellar and that's where I found Tucker."

"Damn." Danny whispered. "And...and then you guys left Amity the next day?"

"Um...well, yes. But we went back out a few minutes after I got there. We were trying to find our other friend." She heaved a sigh. "Tucker, Valerie, and I all went out and made it to his house. We came out of this alley and I almost got run over by my own car."

Danny felt the blood drain from his face. He could still see it, he could see it swerving and dodging people as they went sprinting by. He wondered if he'd seen her without realizing what he was seeing. "Someone hotwired it and stole it that night, drove right past me with it. The dumbass crashed it into a gas pump and the whole thing exploded. The bastard probably never knew what hit him." He swallowed hard, desperately trying to focus on her words over his thundering heart. "Anyways, we...we got to his street and...his house was gone."

She peered up at him and he realized with a start that the edges of her eyes were tinged with red. "We don't know exactly what happened...there was nothing left." She sniffled and wiped at her nose. "I've gone over it a million times in my head, I've tried to imagine what exactly went on in that house that night but..." She released a small sob. "I don't know. I don't know if he was even awake, if he was ever even aware of what happened to him..." She buried her face in her hands and sobbed in earnest. Every nerve in his body yearned to comfort her, but he remained motionless on the bench. "I hope he slept through it. I hope he still thinks he's sleeping, right now. I hope he thinks he's dreaming. I know he's not in the Ghost Zone, he would recognize it."

"What makes you say that he's not there?"

She parted her fingers and arched an eyebrow at him. "He would have come back by now. He would have come back the second he realized where he was, the second he realized what happened to him. He wouldn't just leave us here, not in the state the world's in now." She wiped at her eyes and shook her head vehemently. "That's not the kind of guy he was. He would never abandon me and Tucker. _Ever_."

"Well...what if...what if he thought that you guys died that night, too? What if he thinks that you two are dead as well, and you just haven't materialized in the Ghost Zone yet? Maybe he's just there, waiting for you guys to come find him there. Maybe he'll show up here when he realizes you guys aren't dead."

Her face was expressionless, her eyes were flat. "He's not coming back from the Ghost Zone. Ever. Because he's not _in_ the Ghost Zone. But even if he was, we've lost all contact with the Ghost Zone."

"What?" Danny leapt off of the bench. "I thought you were supposed to be from the most haunted city in the world! What happened to them?"

"Nothing happened to _them_." Sam spat. "_Our_ dimension fell apart. They used to come here because _we_ were the whole dimension, _they_ were the broken dimension. We were heaven, they were hell. And now, look around." She gestured out of the garage door toward the vacant landscape outside of the body shop. "If this happened to the Ghost Zone, you can be damn sure we'd cut contact with them, too. I don't blame them for avoiding us. We're a cancer now. We're the plague. Ninety-nine percent of humanity has fallen to the disease, and the majority of that last one percent is so bloodthirsty they're hardly classified as human anymore. They're animals. I'm an animal. People like you don't exist anymore, Seth. They just don't. How you've survived this long is beyond me."

"Sam, you can't just give up on mankind," Danny reasoned as she stood and wiped her hands on her pants. She scoffed and made her way around the car, snatching a grease-stained cloth from the floor in front of the car. "That last one percent is the only hope mankind has of surviving this. You're one of the last chances mankind has of surviving."

"Yeah, and so is Lars. believe me, you don't want people like me and Lars to reproduce. Mankind is better off dying out."

"Don't lump yourself together with that creep." Danny said firmly. Sam's head whipped toward him, a dangerous look flashing in her eyes. "Lars is the absolute bottom of the barrel. You are ten thousand times better than the very best version of Lars."

"I take it Valerie told you what happened, hm?" She planted a hand on her hip. He nodded. "Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna tell you something about that night, for the sake of this argument, that no one else knows besides me and Lars. I don't know why, but I trust you with this. You can't breathe a word to anyone. Not even Val. Understand?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"Lars...well...he really _did_ try to rape me that night. But...we'd had sex before. Consensual, mind you." She turned away from him, missing him stagger backwards several steps and latch on to the work bench for support. "And only once. But I knew that if people knew that we'd hooked up before, they wouldn't believe me about the actual rape."

"Y-you- you- you slept with Lars?" Danny gasped. Sam threw a confused look over her shoulder. He straightened immediately, wiping stray grease off on his shirt.

"Once. Back at the beginning. I was lonely, vulnerable. I missed Da-...I missed my best friend, and...I don't know, he was just there, and he'd been really nice to me beforehand...I know, big mistake. We did it once and from that moment on he wouldn't let me out of his sight. He kept trying to get me to be his girlfriend or whatever and it was just creepy. Finally I told him to fuck off and that night he snuck into my bedroom and...well...you know the rest."

Danny had to swallow hard against the bile rising in his throat. If the urge to kill Lars before had been strong, it was all but destroying Danny now. He clenched his fingers into fists. "If he ever comes near you again, you just let me know. I'll obliterate that asshole."

A faint smile crossed her lips. "Will do, captain. C'mon, let's get out of here. I'm starving."

They climbed back into the original Jeep, Danny still rather numb from Sam's confession. They started back toward the house, passing through town quickly. Danny was so busy studying her profile furtively from the window that he almost did not notice the jet black SUV barreling down on them until it was right behind them.

The car lurched forward with a metallic crunch. "Whoa!" Sam shouted, leaning forward in her seat and craning her neck to see out of the rear-view mirror. "What the hell is that?"

The SUV lurched forward again, ramming into the back of the Jeep. Sam immediately jerked the wheel to the left in an attempt to make room for the SUV to pass, but the vehicle stayed directly behind her, slamming the back end of the car again.

"Don't pull over, don't pull over!" Danny shouted. "Get back on the road and floor it!"

Sam yanked the wheel to the right and pulled the Jeep back onto the road. Danny turned in his seat, trying to make out the face of the driver as the SUV bore down on them. He slammed into the back of his seat as Sam floored the gas pedal of the Jeep. The SUV fell behind instantly, leaving a rapidly widening gap between the two cars.

"Crawl to the back seat and grab the gun. Bring it back up here." Sam's voice was harsh and commanding. Danny complied immediately, tearing his way into the back seat. He peered over the back seat and flinched as he realized the SUV was catching back up. "Hurry _up_, Seth, they're gaining on us!" Danny seized the butt of the shotgun stored in the trunk and quickly climbed back into the passenger's seat. "Okay, good. I need to drive, so it's up to you to shoot their tires out."

"Wait, what?" Danny gasped. "I'm a horrible shot!"

"You better get good, then, because this isn't the moment for shitty shots! Take the two front tires out, we'll leave them in the dust." She reached up to the ceiling with one hand and hit a button. The tinted sunroof began to roll away, leaving a perfect hole for him to stand in and shoot from. "Go!"

Danny carefully balanced himself on the center console and slowly stood through the sunroof. The SUV was practically on top of them again, easily close enough for him to see the front tires. He tried to recall the three shooting lessons his mother's sister had given him._ 'Always brace the butt of the gun right where your armpit begins! The_ meatiest_ part of your shoulder!'_

He tucked the butt of the gun into his shoulder and brought it up to his face. He rested his cheek against the body of the gun, aiming the barrel at the SUV. "Is it loaded?" He bellowed over the wind.

"Yes! Just shoot!" Sam screamed up at him. He exhaled slowly through his nose, closed his left eye, and aimed.

The gun jerked against him when he pulled the trigger, but he still managed to puncture the tire driver's side tire. The SUV slowed. He could see arms flailing in the windshield, but he could not see who they belonged to. "Shoot the other tire out!" Sam screeched.

Without much thought, he aimed and fired again. The bullet found purchase and immediately the passenger's side tire was torn to shreds. He could hear Sam whooping in exhilaration below him as he dropped the gun, watching the SUV slow to a stop on the side of the road with a grin on his face. That grin faltered, though, when he felt the Jeep slowing as well.

"What are you doing?" He demanded as he dropped back into his seat. She ignored him and pulled a U-turn. "Sam!"

"Relax and give me the gun. We're gonna go see who the hell this ass crack is." She ripped the gun from his hands and kicked her door open. Without waiting to see if Danny was following, she approached the car quickly, aiming the gun at the windshield as she went. Danny scrambled out of his seat to follow.

"Get the fuck out of the car and keep your hands above your head." She called harshly. The driver's side door opened and a man leapt out, his hands high over his head. He kicked his door shut and took a few slow steps forward, his eyes on the ground. "Alright, I wanna know who you are and why you just tried to run me and my friend here off the road."

"My name's Luke and I tried to run you off the road because someone told me to." Luke recited in a hollow voice.

"Who?" Sam demanded sharply.

The passenger's door opened slowly, revealing a shadowy figure from within the car. It was not until he closed the door and took a step forward - smug smile on his face - that Sam and Danny realized in dismay that they knew him.

"That would be me." Lars said, raising his hands over his head.

* * *

**Right, so, yeah. Basically I thoroughly enjoy torturing everyone. Everyone.**

**Not like George R. R. Martin torture. A lesser, still painful, but slightly more bearable torture. That's me. (:**

**Ahum, I think that's it. Quick poll to those of you who are still reading and also happen to be Starkid fans - which should I watch first?**

Holy Musical, Batman!

**OR**

Starship

**Help!**

**Oh, yeah, right, about the reviews. Leave them if you want. Shmee. I don't care. I mean, I do, I LOVE reading [positive] reviews but if you don't wanna leave one then don't feel pressured to.**

**Thanks for reading! :D**

**- Tori**


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**So I'm like wacked out of my mind right now because I haven't slept in like three days and I ran a 5K this morning. Or maybe it was yesterday morning. I can't remember ): Not 100% sure if I'm gonna remember this later.**

**That being said, don't be surprised if this chapter gets redone later on.**

**Sooo in case you haven't noticed, this guy just got bumped up to an _M_! Up until now it's been a _T_, but this chapter sort of crosses the line into the _M_ territory. No sex.**

_**Yet.**_

**Wow, you guys really don't like Lars! He's literally said like maybe three words. I can't wait to see how y'all react to this chapter.**

**Um...so...okay. I think that's all. I can't...really...think of anything else to say. Besides the disclaimer.**

**I don't own Danny Phantom.**

**Also,**

**Enjoy! (:**

* * *

**Wide Awake**

**Chapter Thirteen**

**June 23, 2013**

* * *

"_Lars?_" Sam shrieked. His grin grew smugger as he laced his fingers together over his head. "What -? I don't -"

"It's nothing personal, it's just that I _hate_ you." Lars shrugged. Sam snarled something so fiercely it was incoherant and took several steps forward, bringing the barrel of the gun to the tip of his nose.

"I'll blow your fucking head off." She swore through gritted teeth.

"No, you won't." Lars said firmly, face a mask of seriousness.

"If she doesn't, I will." Danny said darkly, moving to stand at Sam's side.

Lars laughed loudly. "Who the hell is this kid?" He asked, gesturing to Danny with one hand.

"Nevermind who he is!" Sam practically screeched. She whirled around and planted her hand in the center of Danny's chest, giving him a firm shove backwards before turning her full attention back to Lars. "I wanna know why you were trying to _kill_ us!"

"Not kill you, just run you off the road." Lars corrected her, still glancing rather curiously at Danny. Sam snarled again and moved to block Danny from Lars' vision.

"Back off." She spat. Danny could clearly see Lars recoil, and for a brief moment Danny wondered just how much righteous fury was shining through Sam's face.

"Look, you little _bitch_," Lars growled, eyeing the gun warily. Danny had to bite his tongue hard to keep from lashing out at Lars. "I've been very patient with you. I've kept our little secret under wraps but lately _you_ haven't been holding up your end of the bargain. We're starting to get antsy."

"Bargain?" Danny interjected. Sam ignored him. "What's he talking about?"

"She didn't tell you?" Lars craned around to flash an incredulous look at Danny. "Figures, Sam never tells anyone anything anymore. She's got trust issues."

"I swear to God!" She shook the barrel slightly, fingers curling around the gun until her knuckles whitened. "Shut the _fuck up_!" She threw a glance over her shoulder at Danny. "Ignore him." She muttered to him through her clenched teeth.

"You have two weeks, do you understand me?" Lars hissed. Sam's head snapped back toward him, her onyx hair flying.

"Leave. _Now_." Sam whispered. They glowered at each other a moment longer before Lars turned sharply away from the barrel of the gun and stormed past his car. Luke, who had not spoken a word since first exiting the car, quickly moved to follow Lars. Sam kept the gun aimed at Lars until he was far enough away for the dust blowing up from the ground to conceal him. She lowered the gun slowly, obviously still fuming, before whirling around and stomping over to the driver's side of the Jeep. She climbed inside and stared stonily at the horizon until Danny joined her in the car.

"What was Lars talking about?" He asked the moment the door slammed shut behind him.

Sam revved the engine and tore away from the side of the road. She drove the car in a wide arc, around several buildings, before pulling back onto the road and speeding back toward the ranch. The needle was just brushing ninety miles an hour when she sighed. "How much did Valerie tell you about what Lars did?"

"She told me that he snuck into your room and tried to rape you in the middle of the night, Tucker woke up, and you two almost beat Lars to death. Also that you guys had a hearing and unanimously decided to kick him off of the ranch."

"Is that all?"

Danny felt his heart sink. "I...is there more to it?"

"Um..." She bit her lower lip, eyes scanning the horizon as if searching for a way out of their conversation. He could see her throat working against itself, as if she was trying to swallow a particularly large lump lodged in her windpipe.

"Sam," Danny said softly. Her grip on the steering wheel tightened slightly and he could feel the car starting to lose momentum. "It's okay. I'm not gonna judge you. I swear to you, I won't think any less of you."

She stepped on the brakes, slowing the car significantly until they rolled to a stop on the side of the road. Silence swelled through the cab. Danny considered reaching out to touch her, but just as he got the nerve up to lift his hand, Sam threw the car in park and turned to face him. She closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath, before slowly exhaling. Danny's eyes fluttered closed against his will as her breath washed over his face.

"I already told you that I willingly slept with Lars before the whole rape incident," Her voice jolted him out of his momentary reverie. He cleared his throat and nodded, shifting further up in his seat to face her more easily. He desperately wished to reach out and smooth the place between her eyebrows with the pad of his thumb as they were currently creased from her furrowed brow. "That's what he was talking about when he mentioned 'our little secret.'" She heaved another great sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. "But I had to make a deal with him so that he would be willing to go quietly."

"What deal?" Danny asked, already feeling a cold sense of dread seep down his spine.

She did not answer right away. Several moments of near silence passed, the only sound being the quiet purr of the engine idling. "He...he just..." She murmured, staring down at her hands. "Before the trial he...I had to make sure he wouldn't tell anyone that we'd...you know...and so I...I went and talked to him about it and he said the only way he wouldn't tell anyone is if I..." Her voice trailed.

"If you what?" Danny asked breathlessly, clenching his hands into fists on his thighs.

"If I...if I help him find somewhere to stay alive, okay? I've been helping him stay alive, but then he found a few other survivors and now they're getting out of control. He keeps insisting that I provide for them all but last time I was out there with them I told them I wasn't gonna do it anymore. You heard him," She gestured out the windshield as if Lars was standing before their car. "They're getting antsy. Seth, I don't really have much of a choice in the matter. If I don't do what they say..."

"What, they'll come and hurt you? I'd like to see them try," Danny spat, venom dripping from each syllable. Sam scoffed, her gaze still downcast. His head snapped toward her and he could feel a snarl twisting his features. "I'm not kidding. If he comes anywhere near you, I'll rip him limb from limb. I'll _destroy_ him. I'll make him wish he was never even _born_." Her eyes were wide and trained on his face. He could feel himself trembling with conviction, his nostrils flaring, before he realized who he was supposed to be. "A-and I just met you," He added, his voice quivering. "Just imagine how the rest of the crew is gonna react when -"

"_No!_" She cried sharply. "We can't tell them, they can't know! If I had my way, you wouldn't know either! Seth," She was shaking her head frantically beneath the look he was giving her. "You don't understand. If they find out that I've been helping Lars since we kicked him out, they'll kick me out, too."

He blanched. That was not at all what he wanted. "Well, what if we told Tucker? He could help..."

Sam laughed humorlessly. "Have you _met_ Tucker?" She asked. "He's not exactly a huge fan of Lars, hasn't been since the night we left Amity."

Danny fell back against his chair, closing his eyes and sighing. Exhaustion tugged at his limbs, begging him to find a bed and sleep until the world ended. "You can't deal with this on your own. You can't expect to take care of an entire second group when you've got so much responsibility in this group already." After a moment of hesitation, he stretched his arm across the gap between them and his fingers grazed her shoulder. He felt her stiffen, heard her suck in a sharp breath, but his hand made purchase and as gently as he could possibly manage, he applied pressure. "You don't have to tell everyone, but...please, let me help you,"

He took it as a good sign that she did not immediately throw his hand off of her shoulder. "It's not that simple," She murmured, eyes drifting to his arm bridging the gap between them. He felt the urge to withdraw as she studied the veins bulging in his forearm. "I can't just walk in there with you. They might want something more if you help me."

"But you said it yourself, they're starting to get wilder and if you're not able to keep up they could hurt you. They could kill you. And if no one else knows you're out there..." She turned her head away from him, gazing out the windshield in misery. "Please, Sam, let me help you. If nothing else, for the sake of my sanity."

She lifted the arm he was not grasping to rub her eyes in exhaustion. "I can see how stressed out you are," He pressed. She snorted, still rubbing her eyes. "C'mon...please?"

She yawned and dropped her hand down to her lap. Slowly, through bloodshot eyes, she turned to face him again. "Okay," She mumbled, nodding begrudgingly and rolling her eyes when he fist-pumped in excitement. "But you can't tell anyone! I can't stress enough how important it is that this stays between you and me."

"Believe me, your secret is safe with me." He gave her shoulder one last squeeze, resisting the longing he felt in his heart, before twisting back in his seat to face forward.

"We should get back, the sun's starting down and if we're not there for the bonfire tonight Tucker'll get suspicious," Sam gripped the steering wheel with one hand and ran her other through her hair. "Oh, God," She muttered, pulling her hand back to stare at her fingers. "I need a shower,"

"You guys have a shower?" Danny asked incredulously as she pulled the car onto the road.

She threw him a stunned glance. "No one told you?" She asked, disbelief ringing in her voice. Danny shook his head, scarcely feeling the way his eyes bulged. "Oh my God! When was the last time you took a shower?" He turned away and furrowed his brow, trying to recall the last time he thought it prudent to at least attempt to scrub the grime off of his body. "Oh, Jesus, Seth! I'm so sorry, you've got first shower when we get back, I swear!"

"No, no! If you want the -"

"When I said I needed a shower, it's more like I haven't showered in a couple days. If you can't even remember the last time you washed your hair..." She shivered. "Compared to you I probably feel like a freshly picked daisy."

He laughed, long and loud. She glanced at him curiously, uncertain smile flashing across her face, before her attention was back on the road. He was still grinning widely when she quietly murmured, "You even laugh like him."

He felt his facial expression turn to stone. It was not until they were back at the front gate of the ranch that he finally tore his gaze away from the passanger's window to glance over the console where she was sitting. Her gaze was determindly fixated on the three people jogging down the slope toward the gate.

* * *

"Okay, so, here's everything you'll need," Sam shoved a towel and a bar of soap into Danny's outstretched arms. "There's a huge jug of shampoo in there, but please try to be careful. I know this is your first shower in a long time, but try to remember that there are about fifty other people who need it too and we really need to make it last. We won't have this luxery much longer."

Danny nodded firmly, unable to keep from tapping his foot impatiently. Sam continued to fret over the towel, warning him not to rub too vigerously when he dried off "because they're threadbare anyways, the even the slightest tug could send it into a pile of yarn at your feet."

"Sam, I'll be careful," He assured her. She studied his face through a mask of worry before decidedly nodding. She planted herself beside the door to the tiny cabin (which was really closer to a shack) behind the barn, crossing her legs and studying her nails. "I'll only be a few minutes," He said as he stepped through the doorway.

"Take your time," she murmured absently. He watched her a moment longer before the cool interior of the cabin called him further inside. The door shut with a soft click behind him. He peered deeper into the one-room cabin, pausing just inside the door to kick his shoes off. The floors were cobbled, not unlike the front entrance of the main building, and the walls were covered in large slabs of stone. The wood-panelled ceiling hung low over his head, brushing against his hair when he stood on the balls of his feet. The right corner of the cabin was dominated by a vast shower, slightly sunken into the ground, with a showerhead so large it was nearly twice the circumfrence of his head hanging directly over the center of the shower. He swallowed hard. There were no curtains.

A large mirror hung on the same wall as the door, with three sinks set into a gleaming marble countertop spaced evenly before it. A white porcelain toilet sat innocently in the left corner of the building, opposite the shower. The entire building was probably only fifteen square feet, but it felt huge. He paused in the center of the room and turned slowly, trying to imagine Paulina and her parents enjoying themselves there. It felt as if a lifetime had passed since the time he would have actually cared about using the same shower Paulina used.

Now all he felt was a stark indifference about it all. He could not even bring himself to care that Sam had used this shower at some point, because his brain quickly reminded him that Lars probably also saw the cool tiles lining the walls inside the shower. He gritted his teeth and dropped the towel on the floor at the thought of Lars.

_That fucking prick got to take her before I could,_ he thought as he practically ripped his clothes off. His phone clattered to the ground as he yanked his shorts down, distracting him for a moment, but he quickly shook it off and finished undressing._ I bet he didn't even love her, he just wanted to use her for the sex_. He stalked toward the shower and yanked the knobs around, sending a burst of water cascading down on his head._ If I ever get him alone, I'm gonna smash his head into a brick wall._ He pictured it, imagined taking Lars by the back of his neck and slamming his head repeatedly into a brick wall until his skull crumbled and blood poured from his ears, and he grinned with a kind of savage pleasure. He pictured Sam watching, cheering for him, calling out to him with his real name. He could feel his heartrate increase at the thought of seizing her by the waist and planting a searing kiss against her lips, hauling her there into the shower without ever breaking that kiss, pinning her to the wall and having his way with her while she writhed against him in pleasure. He could imagine it so clearly, her arms clinging to his neck, fingernails scraping against his shoulderblades hard enough to draw blood, her breath sharp and hot against his ear.

He jumped at the distant sound of a gunshot. The water was nearly scalding by then, sending thick spirals of steam rushing up past his face to lick the ceiling. He shook his head and closed his eyes, desperately trying to focus on the water pounding into the muscles of his back rather than the blood pounding through a certain body part below his belt region.

He did try to hurry, but he enjoyed the feeling of suds running down his body far too much to rush through. He was careful to take the smallest amount of shampoo he could, but he did take his time massaging the substance into his scalp. He could feel layers and layers of dust and grime swirling around his feet and plummeting down the drain, and it felt far better than he ever imagined it could.

He tried to calculate the amount of time that passed while he was showering, but found that he could not. He stooped down where he dropped the towel and carefully ran it up his legs, going as slowly as possible to avoid tearing any holes through it. He thought he could hear the sounds of people shouting just outside the door of the cabin, but he quickly shook it off in favor of toweling off his hair. He redressed quickly, shoving his lifeless phone back into his pocket and carefully folding the towel over his arm as he made his way back to the door of the cabin. He stooped to retie his shoes, before throwing the door open and blinking at the light of the setting sun.

Sam was still sitting right where he left her, her head lolled backwards and resting against the wall of the cabin. She jumped when he opened the door, bringing a hand up to sheild her eyes as she glanced over him. "Wow, you look like you feel better," She grinned.

"I feel like a totally different person," He nodded. She chuckled and scrambled to her feet, eyes still raking up and down his freshly cleaned form. He cleared his throat pointedly, biting the inside of his cheek to hide his grin as she jumped and met his gaze. "What was all that noise I heard?"

"What, the gun? It was nothing, someone was just doing target practice," She shrugged.

"And the people screaming?"

"Oh, jeez, you can hear really well. They're just getting firewood together for the bonfire in a couple hours," She waved her hand over her shoulder dismissively. "Nothing out of the ordinary. Why, did you think something was going on?"

"Well, no, not really. I was just curious more than anything else," He glanced past her, toward the line of people hauling armfuls of firewood to the far side of the barn. He could see Eams chatting animatedly with Kee, who was pointedly ignoring him as they trudged along. "I wasn't worried," He added as an afterthought. Eams seemed to feel Danny's gaze, for he suddenly lifted his arm and waved excitedly to him. Danny lifted his hand and waved back, grinning as Kee shot a confused glance over her shoulder.

Sam craned around to see as well, the right side of her mouth gravitating upward in a grin. "Making friends, are we?" She chided, turning back to face him.

Danny shrugged. "He's got the cot next to mine," He said, still gazing in their direction. "He's pretty cool."

"His girlfriend's cooler," Sam whispered. He turned his gaze down to her, meeting her grin with a grin of his own. "I'm getting in the shower. I'll see you at the bonfire?"

She was already half-way through the door, but she turned to face him, holding the door open with one hand. Her eyes were lit, and something close to excitement made her face practically glow. Her beauty left him speechless for a brief moment.

"Seth!" Eams' voice echoed across the distance, bursting the tranquility of the moment. Danny glanced around, spotted Kee and Eams crossing the field, headed straight toward him. He turned back to Sam, who was just looking back to him from peering around the doorframe as well.

"See you at the bonfire," Danny murmured. Her smile widened and she lingered in the doorway for a moment longer before the door swung shut and Danny was left to stare longingly at the space she occupied only seconds before.

* * *

**So it wasn't too graphic at all. I don't think. I just feel a little uncomfortable leaving this at a _T_. I feel like there's too big of a risk of this getting reported if I don't change the rating now. Besides, I plan to make this story earn a true-blue _M_ in later chapters, so it's better to bump it now rather than trying to remember to do it later.**

**Heh. Do it.**

**Idk, y'all tell me if you think it's still light enough to be a _T_, because I know that most people don't browse the _M_ fics and I do want this to get as many readers as possible. I always get a new group of readers with each chapter I post.**

**Yeah so okay I'm gonna go now. Hope you guys enjoyed this, please feel free to leave any questions/comments/concerns/hate mail for Lars in the review box below. Please address all flames to Lars as well. I'll deliver any and all messages to him as quickly as possible.**

**Plus your reviews make me giggle. (:**

**Okay, that's all I got. Thanks for reading!**

**Tori**


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